LIBRARY 

University  of 
IRVINE^ 


OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 


OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

A  Revelation  and  an  Indictment 
of  Sovietism 


BY 

SAMUEL  gOMPERS 

President  of  The  American  Federation  of  Labor 

Author  of  "Labor  and  the  Common  Welfare," 

"Labor  and  the  Employer,"  etc. 

With  the  Collaboration  of 
WILLIAM  ENGLISH  WALLING 

Author  of  "  Sovietism:    The  A  IB  C  of  Russian 
Bolshevism — According  to  the  Bolshevists". 


NEW  YORK 
E.  P.  BUTTON  &  COMPANY 

681  FIFTH  AVENUE 


Copyright  1921 
By  E.  P.  DUTTON  &  COMPANY 


All  Rights  Ruentd 


f  tinted  in  (A«  t/n»l«d  <S<Ol«  «/  America 


FOREWORD 

I  HAVE  been  under  the  necessity  of  observing  the  Bol- 
shevist movement  from  close  quarters  for  many  years. 
I  have  had  to  contend  with  it  almost  daily  long  before 
it  seized  the  power  in  Russia  in  the  name  of  Communism 
and  Soviet.  Trotzky  is  only  one  of  the  Bolshevist  leaders 
who  long  sojourned  in  this  country  to  plague  the  Ameri- 
can labor  movement.  And  the  few  thousands  who  have 
returned  to  Soviet  Russia  represent  but  a  small  part  of 
the  forces  of  revolutionary  mania  in  America.  These 
forces  are  not  strong  enough  seriously  to  threaten 
American  labor — provided  they  are  isolated  and  under- 
stood. But  they  must  be  understood  and  isolated. 

While  the  labor  movement  of  the  world  is  gradually 
but  steadily  shaking  itself  free  of  the  illusion  that  the 
Soviets  are  a  workingmen's  government — the  first  work- 
ingmen's  government — conservative  powers  are  begin- 
ning to  give  them  commercial  and  political  support  and 
a  part  of  the  press  is  engaged  in  finding  virtuous  reasons 
for  this  policy.  The  pace  was  set  by  the  British-Soviet 
trade  agreement  and  by  Lloyd  George's  speech  in  Par- 
liament in  which  he  contended,  with  an  intentional  para- 
dox but  still  quite  seriously,  that  the  Bolshevists  had  sud- 
denly become  moderates.  The  work  of  labor  in  repudi- 
ating Bolshevism  has  thus  become  more  difficult.  Certain 
conservatives  and  reactionaries  pretend — for  motives  of 
their  own — that  they  no  longer  have  much  objection  to 

v 


vi  FOREWORD 

the  Soviets.  They  are  willing  to  trade  with  cannibals, 
to  use  an  expression  of  Lloyd  George.  But  labor  cannot 
affiliate  or  associate  with  cannibals — or  with  tyrants  who 
rule  over  labor  by  the  Red  Terror  and  the  firing  squad. 

"Whether  an  anti-labor  despotism  rules  over  one  of 
the  greatest  peoples  of  the  earth  may  be  a  matter  of 
indifference  to  the  masters  of  the  British  Empire  as  long 
as  that  despotism  is  willing  to  meet  the  Empire  half 
way — and  to  sign  away  the  title  to  the  territories  and 
natural  wealth  of  the  nation.  It  cannot  be  a  matter  of 
indifference  to  labor. 

Labor's  interest  in  putting  forth  the  truth  about  the 
Soviets  is  in  part  altruistic.  Labor's  regard  for  the  wel- 
fare of  the  Russian  workers  is  deep  and  genuine.  But 
it  also  knows  that  if  an  anti-labor  despotism  may  be 
made  to  work  in  one  country — however  inefficiently — it 
will  encourage  the  enemies  of  labor  to  try  the  same 
methods  elsewhere.  Moreover,  if  the  Soviets  are  given 
a  certain  permanence  and  success  as  ''moderates"  by  the 
aid  of  certain  governments  and  financiers  they  will  cer- 
tainly continue  to  represent  this  success  to  the  labor 
of  the  world  as  having  come  to  them  from  their  own 
efforts  as  "ultra-revolutionists." 

The  outward  success  of  the  Soviets — with  capitalist 
backing — would  cost  the  capitalists  themselves  dearly  in 
the  end.  But  labor  would  pay,  and  pay  heavily  from  the 
beginning. 

The  Soviets  may  or  may  not  reach  a  common  under- 
standing of  real  practical  importance  with  cynical  im- 
perialists and  capitalistic  adventurers.  There  is  no  pos- 
sible common  ground  between  Bolshevism  and  organized 
labor.  Nor  will  the  proposed  economic  alliance  between 


FOREWORD  vii 

Bolshevism  and  Reaction  be  able  to  force  labor  to  com- 
promise with  the  Soviets.  In  the  long  run  this  alliance 
will  help  to  make  still  more  clear  to  the  wage-earners 
the  true  character  of  Bolshevism.  But  its  first  result  is 
to  re-inforce  the  already  formidable  Bolshevist  propa- 
ganda. 

The  miserable  collapse  of  the  revolution  called  by  the 
Soviets  in  Germany  in  March,  following  upon  their 
failure  in  January  and  February  to  capture  the  labor 
unions  of  Italy  and  France,  would  have  spelled  the  end 
of  the  Bolshevist  menace  as  far  as  labor  is  concerned. 
But  then  came  the  British-Soviet  trade  agreement,  the 
laudatory  speech  of  Lloyd  George,  and  a  renewed  flood 
of  pro-Soviet  propaganda  from  capitalist  and  so-called 
"liberal"  quarters.  So  that  the  Bolshevist  propaganda 
menace,  while  in  a  new  form,  is  more  threatening  than 
ever,  and  continues  to  strike  at  all  the  foundations  of 
our  democratic  civilization — and,  in  particular  at  the 
principles  that  underlie  the  labor  movement. 

The  American  labor  movement  has  lost  no  opportunity 
to  prove  its  warm  friendship  for  the  Russian  people  and 
for  the  Russian  Revolution.  It  has  not  hesitated  to  send 
its  greetings  and  offer  of  support  even  to  Socialists  such 
as  those  associated  with  Kerensky — although  American 
labor  is  not  and  never  has  been  socialistic.  Officials  of 
American  labor  unions  have  not  scrupled  for  this  pur- 
pose to  associate  themselves  with  certain  Socialists  of  this 
country  who  supported  the  war  in  a  common  address 
to  the  Kerensky  government.  American  labor  also,  in 
its  earnest  wish  to  reach  the  Russian  people  after  the 
Bolshevist  revolution,  went  so  far  as  to  address  a  mes- 


viii  FOREWORD    % 

sage  to  the  Russian  nation  in  care  of  the  Soviets.    Both 
messages  are  quoted  in  the  Appendix. 

From  the  early  beginnings  of  the  first  Russian  Revo- 
lution in  1905  every  occasion  has  been  seized  to  demon- 
strate friendship.  In  1921  the  Executive  Council  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  once  more  reiterated  its 
friendly  attitude  in  the  following  words: 

It  should,  be  understood  clearly  that  between  the 
people  of  the  United  States  and  the  great  masses  of  the 
people  of  Russia  there  has  been,  is  and  will  continue  to 
be  the  most  earnest  and  sincere  friendship,  and  that  the 
people  of  the  United  States  express  no  sentiment  to  the 
contrary  except  towards  those  in  Russia  who  are  destroy- 
ing the  opportunities  of  the  Russian  people  for  demo- 
cratic self-government,  and  who,  on  the  contrary,  are 
imposing  upon  the  Russian  people  a  brutal,  defenseless 
tyranny.  This  friendship  is  the  friendship  of  the  work- 
ing people  and  of  all  the  people  of  our  country  for  a 
great  people  whose  character  and  aspirations  have  ever 
justified  the  confidence,  respect  and  friendship  of  all 
liberty  loving  people,  and  the  earnest  hope  that  the  sit- 
uation in  Russia  may  so  change  that  freedom,  justice, 
democracy  and  humanitarianism  may  be  the  guiding 
principles  of  their  every  day  lives.  For  that  time  and 
opportunity  American  labor  fervently  anticipates  that 
the  true  bond  of  international  fraternity  may  be  estab- 
lished between  the  toilers  of  Russia  and  those  of 
America. 

The  present  volume  endeavors  to  give  a  balanced  and 
equal  consideration  to  all  the  more  important  phases  of 
Sovietism.  But,  naturally,  I  am  in  a  particularly  favor- 
able situation  to  discuss  the  Soviet  attitude  towards  labor 
both  in  Russia  and  throughout  the  world.  The  chapters 
dealing  with  this  part  of  the  subject  should  be  of  interest 


FOREWORD  ix 

not  only  to  labor  and  its  sympathizers  but  to  the  entire 
community. 

I  must  take  this  opportunity  to  point  out  that  the 
hostility  of  the  Bolshevists  to  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor  is  of  the  same  degree  of  intensity  and  of  the 
same  general  character  as  the  hostility  of  a  large  group 
of  reactionary  employers — a  group  to  be  found  in  all 
countries,  but  at  the  present  moment  far  more  aggressive 
and  powerful  in  the  United  States  than  in  any  other 
nation  of  the  globe.  So  closely  identical  are  the  anti- 
labor-union  policies  of  the  Bolshevists  and  Reactionaries 
that  a  number  of  instances  have  already  arisen  of  deliber- 
ate co-operation  to  destroy  organized  labor.  But  even 
when  there  is  no  definite  alliance  the  similarity  of  the 
purposes  and  methods  of  the  two  groups  bring  it  about 
that  they  spread  an  identical  propaganda.  The  Reac- 
tionary, therefore,  does  not  disguise  the  delight  with 
which  he  reads  of  the  Bolshevist  attacks  on  organized 
labor,  nor  do  the  Bolshevists  disguise  their  joy  at  the 
victories  of  Reaction.  Nor  is  this  the  only  way  by  which 
Reaction  aids  Bolshevism ;  in  its  refusal  to  grant  reason- 
*able  economic  concessions  and  to  cede  to  reasonable  de- 
mands for  political  and  legislative  reforms,  the  Reaction- 
aries inevitably  drive  the  thoughtless  and  impatient  into 
the  arms  of  Bolshevism. 

I  have  been  obliged  to  deal  continually  with  Bolshev- 
ism for  the  past  four  years.  I  have  utilized  in  the 
present  volume  parts  of  several  recent  articles  from  the 
official  organ  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  The 
American  Federationist,  of  which  I  am  editor,  as  well  as 
certain  material  in  the  current  report  of  the  Executive 


x  FOREWORD 

Council  of  that  organization.    Nearly  all  of  it,  however, 
is  new. 

Mr.  William  English  Walling,  who  has  collaborated 
with  me,  is  the  author  of  a  number  of  books  dealing  with 
the  international  labor  movement  and  of  two  volumes  on 
Russia.  He  spent  several  years  in  that  country  at  the 
time  of  the  origin  of  the  Bolshevist  party  and  has  fol- 
lowed it  closely  for  the  past  fifteen  years.  His  knowledge 
of  Russia  and  the  international  labor  movement,  to 
which  I  can  testify,  has  proved  most  helpful. 

SAMUEL  GOMPEES. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

America  and  the  Soviets 

PAGE 

THE  POSITION  OP  AMERICAN  LABOR — SECRETABT 
COLBY'S  NOTE  OF  AUGUST  10,  1921 — THE  BOL- 
SHEVIST ANSWER — SECRETARY  HUGHES'  NOTE  OF 
MARCH  25,  1921 — REVOLUTIONARY  PROPAGANDA 
BY  SOVIET  TRADE  COMMISSIONERS — TEST  OF 
HUGHES'  NOTE — SECRETARY  HUGHES'  REPLY  TO 
PRESIDENT  GOMPERS — SECRETARY  W.  B.  WILSON'S 
DECISION  Re  THE  DEPORTATION  OF  "AMBASSADOR" 
MARTENS — SECRETARY  HOOVER'S  VIEWS — THE 
HEARST  NEWSPAPERS'  INTERPRETATION — OTHER 
NEWSPAPERS — LENIN  AS  A  "  CONSERVATIVE  " — 
THE  OFFICIAL  SOVIET  REPLY  TO  THE  HUGHES 
NOTE — LENIN'S  SUPPOSED  "  COMPROMISES  "  AND 
"  REFORMS  " — "  STATE  CAPITALISM  "  ADOPTED — 
THE  AVALANCHE  OF  ADVERSE  EVIDENCE-THE  PRO- 
BOLSHEVIST  PROPAGANDA  CONTINUES  UNABATED — 
SOCIALIST,  LABOR  AND  "  LIBERAL  "  PRO-BOL- 
SHEVISTS   , 1-19 

CHAPTER  II 
The  Practical  Foundation — Mendacious  Propaganda 

THE  FUNCTION  OF  PROPAGANDA  ACCORDING  TO  THE 
NINTH  COMMUNIST  CONGRESS — LENIN  PUBLICLY 
ADVOCATESMENDACITY — LENIN  VlEWED  AS  A  "MAD 
DEMAGOGUE  " — LENIN  PUBLICLY  PLANS  TO  DE- 


xii  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

STROY  THE  BRITISH  LABOR  PARTY — HlS  CRUDE 
FALSEHOODS  ABOUT  AMERICA,  ENGLAND,  FRANCE 
AND  JAPAN — HE  CLAIMS  COMMUNISM  AS  THE 
CENTRAL  QUESTION  OF  CONTINENTAL  EUROPEAN 
POLITICS — FANTASTIC  PICTURES  OF  FOREIGN  CON- 
DITIONS PRESENTED  TO  SOVIET  RUSSIA — THE 
BOLSHEVIST  MONOPOLY  OF  PAPER  AND  PRINTED 
MATTER — CONTROLLING  THE  THOUGHT  OF  100-, 
000,000  PEOPLE 20-27 

CHAPTER  III 
The  Political  Foundation — War  against  Democracy 

THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  SOVIET  GOVERNMENT  AS  A 
REVOLT  AGAINST  DEMOCRACY — ATTEMPTS  TO  IN- 
TERPRET THE  WORD  "  DEMOCRACY  "  FOR  BOLSHE- 
VIST PURPOSES — THESE  ATTEMPTS  OPENLY 
ABANDONED — THE  SOVIETS  ALSO  BECOME  OBSO- 
LETE— LENIN  SHOWS  IT  is  NOT  A  LABOR  STATE — 
THE  DICTATORSHIP  OF  THE  COMMUNIST  PARTY 
OFFICIALLY  PROCLAIMED — COMPOSITION  OF  COM- 
MUNIST PARTY — THE  SOVIET  CONSTITUTION  LAID 
ASIDE — WHO  CONTROLS  THE  COMMUNIST  PARTY? — 
COMMUNIST  DICTATORSHIP  TO  LAST  TWENTY- 
FIVE  TO  FIFTY  YEARS — THE  COMMUNIST  PARTY 
A  SECT  WAGING  WAR  ON  THE  UNCONQUERED  AND 
UNCONVERTED 28-48 

CHAPTER  IV 
The  Reign  of  Terror 

PRESIDENT  WILSON'S  SUCCESSFUL  APPEAL  TO  THE 
CIVILIZED  NATIONS  TO  OUTLAW  THE  SOVIETS — 
TERRORISM  GROWN  WORSE — EXTERMINATING 


CONTENTS  riii 

PAGE 

THE  MIDDLE  CLASSES — TROTZKY  ON  BREAKING 
THE  WlLL  OF  THE  INTELLECTUALS — RED  TERROR 
URGED  BY  LENIN  AGAINST  RECALCITRANT  SOCIAL- 
ISTS— WHOLESALE  EXECUTIONS  OF  HOSTAGES 
OFFICIALLY  ADMITTED — MEMBERSHIP  OF  ALL  NON- 
BOLSHEVIST  PARTIES  A  CRIME  AGAINST  THE  SOVIET 
STATE — THE  ALL-EMBRACING  ACTIVITIES  OF  THE 
EXTRAORDINARY  COMMISSION  FOR  ADMINISTERING 
THE  RED  TERROR — TERRORISM  AGAINST  AGRI- 
CULTURAL REBELS — TERROR  AGAINST  THE  RED 
ARMY? — TERRORISM  AGAINST  LABOR  AND  TRADES 
UNIONS — THE  EXTRAORDINARY  COMMISSION  IN 
ACTION  AGAINST  THE  LEADERS  OF  THE  AGRARIAN 
PARTY — THE  RED  TERROR  THE  MEASURE  OF 
DESPERATION  OF  A  DWINDLING  MINORITY 49-71 

CHAPTER  V 
Slavery  and  Compulsory  Labor 

SYNDICALISM  ABANDONED — THE  CODE  FOR  SLAVE 
LABOR — MILITARIZATION  OF  LABOR — FACTORY 
DICTATORS — LENIN  DEFENDS  INDUSTRIAL  AUTOC- 
RACY— COMPULSORY  LABOR  THE  FOUNDATION  OF 
THE  SOVIET  STRUCTURE  (TROTZKY) — LABOR 
ARMIES — COMPULSORY  LABOR  TO  LAST  A  GEN- 
ERATION— COMPULSORY  OVER-TIME — COMMUNIST 
LABOR  ACCORDING  TO  LENIN — AN  AMERICAN 
WITNESS — DIFFICULTIES  OF  LABOR  REVOLT 72-87 

CHAPTER  VI 
Persecution  of  Organized  Labor — Trade  Unions 

FREE  TRADE  UNIONS  ABOLISHED — COMPULSORY  OR 
GOVERNMENTAL  TRADE  UNIONS — FICTITIOUS 
MEMBERSHIP — THE  TRADES  UNIONS  SUBORDI- 


xiv  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

NATED  TO  THE  COMMUNIST  PAETT — COLLAPSE 
OF  THE  UNIONS  ADMITTED  BY  TROTZKY — THE 
PRINTERS'  UNION  DESCRIBES  BOLSHEVIST  LABOR 
UNION  PRACTICES — TROTZKT'S  PLAN  OF  APPOINT- 
ING TRADE  UNION  OFFICIALS — LENIN  vs.  TROTZKY 
— THE  REVOLT  WITHIN  THE  UNIONS — THE  CHIEF 
TERRORIST  TAKES  TROTZKY'S  PLACE  AS  COM- 
MISSARY OF  TRANSPORT — APPEAL  OF  THE  PRINT- 
ERS' UNION  AGAINST  THE  COMMUNIST  PARTY 88-103 

CHAPTER  VII 
Oppression  of  the  Agricultural  Population 

THE  AGRICULTURAL  POPULATION  CONQUERED  AND 
SUBJECTED — THE  "  CLASS  WAR  "  CONTINUED 
AGAINST  THE  AGRICULTURISTS  (PEASANTS) — THE 
"  DICTATORSHIP  OF  THE  PROLETARIAT  "  AS  THE 
RULE  OF  AN  INDUSTRIAL  MINORITY  OVER  AN  AGRI- 
CULTURAL MAJORITY — VILIFICATION  OF  THE  AGRI- 
CULTURAL POPULATION  BY  RUSSIAN  BOLSHEVISTS 
AND  FOREIGN  "  LIBERALS  " — THE  AGRICULTUR- 
ISTS AS  THE  INTERNAL  ENEMY — LOOTING  THE 
COUNTRYSIDE — THE  WAR  AGAINST  THE  VILLAGES 
— LENIN'S  COVERING  PHRASES — THE  GREAT  "  RE- 
FORM "  IN  BOLSHEVIST  AGRARIAN  POLICY — COM- 
PULSORY CO-OPERATION — THE  "  RETURN  TO  CAP- 
ITALISM "  IN  AGRARIAN  POLICY — FOUNDATIONS 
OF  LENIN'S  AGRARIAN  POLICY 104-124 

CHAPTER  VIII 
The  Economic  Collapse — Fictitious  Reforms 

THE  ECONOMIC  COLLAPSE  DUE  PARTLY  TO  BOLSHE- 
VISM— DISORGANIZATION  ADMITTED — AGRICULTUR- 


CONTENTS  xv 

PAGE 

ISTS  IN  REVOLT — BTTKEAUCRACY  ABSORBING  TOWN 
POPULATION — PERSECUTION  OP  BRAINS — GOVERN- 
MENT BY  PAPER  DECREES — UNEXAMPLED  INEF- 
FICIENCY— ACCELERATED  DEGENERATION  OF  IN- 
DUSTRY— IMPOSSIBILITY  OF  SOCIAL  AND  INDUS- 
TRIAL REFORM  UNDER  EXISTING  CONDITIONS — 
MYTHICAL  REFORMS — AN  EXAMPLE,  THE  SUP- 
POSED REGARD  FOR  CHILDREN  AND  EDUCATION — 
DREADFUL  CONDITION  OF  SO-CALLED  "  CHILDREN'S 
HOMES  " — ATTEMPTED  COMMUNIST  MONOPOLY  OF 
SCHOOLS — THE  WAR  OF  THE  COMMUNISTS  AGAINST 
THE  SCHOOL  TEACHERS — LESS  THAN  ONE-FOURTH 
OF  THE  CHILDREN  IN  SCHOOL — LITERACY  DESIRED 
BY  BOLSHEVISTS  IN  ORDER  TO  SPREAD  EFFECT  OF 
PRINTED  PROPAGANDA — EDUCATION  A  BRANCH  OF 
PROPAGANDA — SEPARATING  CHILDREN  FROM  HOME 
AND  FAMILY — CULTURE  AND  SOCIAL  RECONSTRUC- 
TION TO  WAIT  UNTIL  DESTRUCTION  OF  EXISTING 
SOCIETY  is  COMPLETED  . .  .  125-141 


CHAPTER  IX 

World  Revolution — The  Attempt  to  Overthrow 
Democratic  Governments 

WORLD  REVOLUTION  REMAINS  THE  CHIEF  AIM — WARS 
AND  REVOLUTIONS  REGARDED  AS  INTERDEPENDENT 
— CIVIL  WAK  HELD  AS  THE  NORMAL  AFTERMATH 
OF  REVOLUTION — MILITARY  AID  FOR  FOREIGN 
REVOLUTIONS — REVOLUTIONARY  MOVEMENTS  USE- 
FUL TO  THE  WORLD  REVOLUTIONARY  CAUSE  EVEN 
WHEN  THERE  ARE  NO  REVOLUTIONS — DENIAL  OF 
WORLD  REVOLUTIONARY  PLANS  BY  BOLSHEVIST 
REPRESENTATIVES  ABROAD — BAD  FAITH  A  FUNDA- 


xvi  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

MENTAL  PRINCIPLE  OP  BOLSHEVISM — WORLD  REVO- 
LUTION IN  SOVIET  AND  COMMUNIST  PARTY  CON- 
STITUTIONS— REVOLUTION  THE  AIM  OF  THE  COM- 
MUNIST INTERNATIONALE — SUCCESSES  OP  MOVE- 
MENT IN  CONTINENTAL  EUROPE — WORLD  REVOLU- 
TIONARY AIM  NOT  ABANDONED — UTILITY  OF 
FOREIGN  REVOLUTIONARY  MOVEMENTS  TO  SOVIET 
GOVERNMENT — SUCCESS  OF  BOLSHEVIST  PROPA- 
GANDA AMONG  FOREIGN  MIDDLE-CLASSES — LENIN'S 
PRESENT  THEORY  ON  WORLD  REVOLUTION — BOL- 
SHEVIST HOPES  FOR  WORLD  WARS — THE  HOPED- 
FOR  WAR  BETWEEN  EUROPE  AND  ASIA — PRO-GER- 
MAN TENDENCIES — PLAN  TO  ATTACK  THE  ENTENTE  142-158 


CHAPTER  X 
The  Communist  Internationale 

RUSSIAN  SOVIET  CONTROL  OF  THE  COMMUNIST  (OR 
THIRD)  INTERNATIONALE — RUSSIAN  ORDERS  TO 
BRITISH  COMMUNISTS — SPLIT  BETWEEN  RUSSIAN 
COMMUNISTS  AND  OTHER  EXTREME  REVOLUTION- 
ISTS— RUSSIAN  REVOLUTIONARY  CHAUVINISM — 
WAR  ON  AMERICAN  TRADE  UNIONS — COMMUNIST 
SUBSIDIES  FOR  FOREIGN  LABOR  PUBLICATIONS — 
How  SOVIET  PROPAGANDA  FORCED  THE  BRITISH 
TRADE  TREATY 159-168 

CHAPTER  XI 
The  Red  Labor  Union  Internationale 

LENIN  RECOGNIZES  THE  TRADE  UNIONS  AS  THE  MAIN 
ENEMY — BOLSHEVIST  ATTACK  ON  THE  REVOLU- 
TIONARY AND  PRO-SOVIET  INTERNATIONAL  FEDER- 


CONTENTS  xvii 

PAQB 

ATION  OF  TRADE  UNIONS — ORGANIZATION  OP  THE 
RED  LABOR  UNION  INTERNATIONALE — MEMBER- 
SHIP OF  THE  NEW  BODY — STRENGTH  OF  RED  UNION 
MOVEMENT  IN  CONTINENTAL  EUROPE-T-STATE 
SOCIALIST  TENDENCY  OF  RUSSIAN  EXTREMISTS  vs. 
SYNDICALIST  TENDENCY  OF  NON-RUSSIANS — ECO- 
NOMIC ORGANIZATION  (THE  UNIONS)  SUBORDINATED 
TO  POLITICAL  (THE  COMMUNIST  PARTY) — Losov- 
SKY,  SOVIET  LABOR  UNION  AUTHORITY,  ACKNOWL- 
EDGES SPLIT  WITH  REVOLUTIONARY  SYNDICALISTS 
— ACTIVITIES  IN  AMERICA — COUNTER-ATTACK  BY 
THE  SOCIALIST  (OR  SECOND)  INTERNATIONALE 169-187 

CHAPTER  XII 
European  Labor  Disillusioned 

REVOLUTIONARY  EUROPEAN  LABOR  DELEGATIONS  TO 
SOVIET  RUSSIA  REPORT  AGAINST  BOLSHEVISM — 
THE  ULTIMATUM  OF  TWENTY-ONE  POINTS  SENT  TO 
THE  SOCIALIST  AND  LABOR  PARTIES  OF  THE  WORLD 
— EUROPEAN  SOCIALISTS  FAVOR  ENTENTE  MILI- 
TARY ACTION  IN  GEORGIA  AGAINST  THE  SOVIETS — 
THE  FRENCH  LABOR  UNIONS  REPUDIATE  Moscow 
— ADVERSE  REPORT  OF  SPANISH  SOCIALIST  DELE- 
GATE— COUNTER-ATTACK  OF  THE  INTERNATIONAL 
FEDERATION  OF  TRADE  UNIONS — SOVIET  REPLY  TO 
THE  BRITISH  LABOR  PARTY — THE  VOICE  OF  THE 
RUSSIAN  PEOPLE — THE  INDICTMENT  BY  THE  Rus- 
BIAN  AGRARIANS  (THE  SOCIALIST  REVOLUTIONARY 
PARTY) — THE  SOCIALIST  REVOLUTIONARY  PARTY 
PROTESTS  AGAINST  PRO-SOVIET  ATTITUDE  OF  THE 
WORLD'S  SOCIALISTS  . .  .  188-202 


xviii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XIII 
The  Camouflaged  Trade  Agitation 

PAGE 

De  Facto  RECOGNITION  OF  THE  SOVIET  GOVERNMENT 
THE  PRIME  OBJECT  OP  THE  AGITATION  FOR  TRADE 
TREATIES — THE  CLAIM  THAT  THESE  TREATIES 
MEAN  THE  ABANDONMENT  OF  COMMUNISM — 
THE  SOVIETS  REGARD  THE  TREATIES  AS  A  VICTORY 
FOR  INTERNATIONAL  COMMUNISM — CONTINUED 
COMMUNIST  PROPAGANDA  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  IN 
SPITE  OF  TREATY — TRADE  TREATIES  A  PART  OF 
THE  BOLSHEVISTS'  REVOLUTIONARY  TACTICS — THE 
BOLSHEVISTS  Avow  THEIR  PURPOSES  IN  GRANTING 
COMMERCIAL  CONCESSIONS — COMMUNISTS  NOT 
ABANDONING  COMMUNISM — THE  TREATIES  RE- 
GARDED AS  MERE  ARMED  TRUCES — PRESIDENT 
GOMPERS'  LETTER  ON  THE  SOVIET  TRADE  AGITA- 
TION— SECRETARY  HUGHES'  REPLY — THE  SOVIETS 
TWICE  REFUSE  INTERNATIONAL  AID  FOR  THE  SUF- 
FERING RUSSIAN  PEOPLE — THE  OBJECTS  OF  THE 
BRITISH  TREATY — AMERICA  FREE  FROM  THESE 
OBJECTIVES — THE  PRO-SOVIET  AGITATION  OF 
PSEUDO  LIBERALS — SUFFICIENT  INFORMATION 
Now  AT  HAND  203-227 

APPENDIX  I 
American  Labor  and  Russia 

CABLEGRAMS — PRESIDENT  GOMPERS  TO  THE  PRESIDENT 
OP  THE  WORKMEN'S  .VND  SOLDIERS' 

COUNCIL,  APRIL  2,  1917 228-229 

— EXECUTIVE  COUNCIL  OF  THE  AMERICAN 
FEDERATION  OF  LABOR  TO  THE  PRESI- 


CONTENTS  xix 

PAGE 

DENT  OP  THE  WORKMEN'S  AND  SOLr 

DIERS'  COUNCIL,  APRIL  23, 1917 229-230 

— PRESIDENT  GOMPERS  TO  THE  COUNCIL 
OF  WORKMEN  AND  SOLDIERS,  MAT  6, 
1917 230-232 

— PRESIDENT  GOMPERS  TO  KERENSKY, 

SEPTEMBER  17,  1917 233-234 

— PRESIDENT  GOMPERS,  FOR  THE  ALLI- 
ANCE FOR  LABOR  AND  DEMOCRACY,  TO 
THE  ALL-RUSSIAN  SOVIET,  MARCH  12, 
1918 234 

APPENDIX  II 
The  Soviet  Administration  of  Justice    235-236 

APPENDIX  III 

The  Turko-Bolshevist  Attack  on  the  Labor 

Government  of  Georgia  237-239 

APPENDIX  IV 

* 

Lenin's  "Conversion" 

THE  WORLD  REVOLUTION  STILL  THE  MAIN  CONSIDERA- 
TION— LENIN  SAYS  THAT  PRIVATE  PROPERTY  IN 
LAND  AND  FREE  TRADE  IN  AGRICULTURAL  PROD- 
UCTS ARE  NOT  TO  BE  RESTORED GOVERNING  OF 

THE  PEASANTS  WITHOUT  THEIR  CONSENT  TO  CON- 
TINUE FOR  GENERATIONS — LOCAL  AND  NARROWLY 
RESTRICTED  PRIVATE  TRADING  ESTABLISHED — 
THE  AIM  REMAINS  TO  MAINTAIN  THE  POWER  OF 
THE  COMMUNIST  PARTY  .  .  .  240-244 


xx  JCONTENTS 

APPENDIX  V 
Can  the  Soviets  be  Saved  by  Capital? 

PAGE 

THE  BRITISH  WHITE  PAPER  SUMMARIZED — No  POSSI- 
BILITY THAT  RUSSIA  WILL  BE  ABLE  TO  RELIEVE 
EUROPE  FOR  A  CONSIDERABLE  PERIOD — RUSSIA 
DEPENDENT  ON  FOREIGN  CAPITAL  (OR  CREDIT) — 
CAN  FOREIGN  CAPITAL  SAVE  RUSSIA  IF  THE  SOVIET 
POWER  REMAINS? — THE  ECONOMIC  FAILURE  or 
BOLSHEVISM — INVERTED  INTERPRETATIONS  OF  THE 
WHITE  PAPER..  .  245-253 


OUT  OF  THEIR  OWF  MOUTHS 


OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 


AMERICA   AND   THE    SOVIETS 

THE  American  Federation  of  Labor,  at  its  1920  con- 
vention, resolved: 

That  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  is  not  justi- 
fied in  taking  any  action  which  could  be  construed  as 
an  assistance  to  or  approval  of,  the  Soviet  Government 
of  Russia  as  long  as  that  government  is  based  upon 
authority  which  has  not  been  vested  in  it  by  a  popular 
representative  national  assemblage  of  the  Russian  peo- 
ple ;  or  so  long  as  it  endeavors  to  create  revolutions  in 
the  well-established,  civilized  nations  of  the  world;  or 
so  long  as  it  advocates  and  applies  the  militarization 
of  labor  and  prevents  the  organizing  and  functioning 
of  trade  unions  and  the  maintenance  of  a  free  press 
and  free  public  assemblage. 

This  resolution  contains  a  very  conservative  state- 
ment of  the  anti-labor  and  anti-democratic  nature  of 
the  Soviet  dictatorship  and  the  reasons  of  organized 
labor  for  repudiating  it. 

In  response  to  the  overwhelming  pressure  of  public 
opinion,  including  not  only  organized  labor  but  all  ele- 
mjents  of  the  American  people,  Secretary  of  State  Colby, 


2  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

on  the  tenth  of  August,  1920,  a  few  weeks  following 
the  convention,  addressed  a  powerful  note  to  the  Italian 
Government  giving  reasons  why  America  refused  to 
have  anything  to  do  with  the  Soviet  dictatorship.  The 
chief  reasons  given  by  Mr.  Colby  were  (1)  the  unrepre- 
sentative and  anti-democratic  character  of  the  so-called 
Soviet  Government  and  (2)  the  utter  unreliability  it 
had  shown  in  all  international  relations,  including  state- 
ments by  its  leading  officials  that  they  did  not  intend 
to  be  bound  by  their  own  pledges  to  "bourgeois"  gov- 
ernments. 

The  Bolshevists'  answer  was  to  increase  their  public 
and  underground  labors  in  this  country.  In  the  United 
States  as  in  all  European  countries,  as  well  as  China, 
Persia,  India,  Turkey,  Mexico  and  even  in  South 
America,  Soviet  agents  have  been  repeatedly  caught 
carrying  vast  sums  for  the  purposes  of  propaganda. 
While  Russian  agriculture  is  degenerating  for  the  lack 
of  plows  and  even  of  sickles  and  scythes;  while  the 
laboring  class  is  starving  from  the  degeneration  of 
agriculture ;  while  the  railroads  are  falling  to  pieces  and 
three-fourths  of  the  children  are  out  of  school,  the  Soviet 
finds  ample  means  for  vast  expenditures  not  only  for 
propaganda  but  for  military  attacks,  such  as  those  re- 
cently made  on  the  democratic  labor  government  of 
Georgia  and  her  neighbors.  This  money  has  been  taken 
from  Russia's  dwindling  gold  reserve  and  the  few  other 
mobile  assets  such  as  jewels,  art  treasures,  platinum 
and  foreign  securities,  which  might  have  been  used  as 
a  basis  for  restoring  her  credit  and  setting  up  a  cur- 
rency system  at  such  time  as  the  government  became 
civilized. 


AMERICA  AND  THE  SOVIETS  3 

Democratic  governments,  no  matter  how  large  and 
powerful,  have  no  propaganda  funds.  Hence  the  un- 
deniable and  considerable  effect  of  the  Bolshevist  agita 
tion  in  America  as  well  as  other  countries.  Though 
the  evidence  coming  from  Russia,  consisting  in  large 
part  of  Bolshevist  documents,  is  vast  and  overwhelm- 
ing, it  has  secured  less  circulation  than  the  audacious 
falsifications  and  inventions  of  the  Bolshevists  and  their 
sympathizers — disproven  one  day  only  to  be  repeated 
in  some  new  form  on  the  next. 

The  Soviets  and  their  supporters  threw  themselves 
into  the  Presidential  election  campaign  last  autumn 
with  the  avowed  hope  of  securing  recognition  from 
the  present  Executive  and  State  Departments  of  the 
United  States.  But  in  spite  of  the  huge  bulk  of  the 
pro-Bolshevist  matter  put  out — by  thousands  of  pub- 
lications, the  practical  results  achieved  were  equal  to 
zero.  The  great  majority  of  American  people  read  it, 
pondered  upon  it  and — threw  it  into  the  waste  basket. 

The  new  administration  did  not  have  to  hesitate  a 
moment  in  deciding  what  to  do.  President  Harding 
and  Secretary  Hughes  had  not  been  in  office  more 
than  a  few  days  when,  Great  Britain  having  signed 
her  trade  agreement  (on  March  18th),  the  Soviets 
immediately  played  their  long  expected  card  in  the 
shape  of  a  note  asking  that  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment officially  receive  a  so-called  trade  delega- 
tion from  Soviet  Russia.  Doubtless  one  consideration 
affecting  the  new  administration  in  its  prompt  reply 
was  the  fact  that  all  such  trade  delegations  throughout 
Europe  had  been  employed  by  the  Soviets  for  the  pur- 
pose of  revolutionary  agitation  to  overthrow  the  gov- 


4  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

ernments  to  which  they  were  accredited.  The  offer 
of  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  dollars  to 
the  London  Daily  Herald,  the  willingness  of  the  Lans- 
hury  semi-Communist  organ  to  accept  it — a  publication 
which,  unfortunately,  is  also  the  chief  organ  of  the 
British  Labor  Party — and  the  proof  given  by  the  British 
Government  that  Kameneff,  the  Soviet  "trade"  emis- 
sary, was  privy  to  the  offer,  are  fresh  in  the  mind  of 
the  American  public.  Similar  instances  occurred  in 
Germany,  Italy,  Switzerland  and  other  countries. 

But  the  grounds  given  by  Secretary  Hughes,  in  his 
Note  refusing  to  consider  the  Soviet  overture,  were 
different.  Without  either  re-affirming  or  amending  the 
conclusive  arguments  offered  by  President  Wilson  and 
Secretary  Colby,  without  considering  the  non-repre- 
sentative character  of  the  Kussian  Government  or  its 
instability,  Secretary  Hughes  brought  forward  addi- 
tional considerations  which  have  met  the  almost  unan- 
imous approval  of  the  common  sense  of  the  American 
people : 

Text  of  Hughes 's  Statement  Rejecting  Soviet's  Pro- 
posal for  a  Governmental  Trade  Agreement 

(March  25th,  1921) 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  views  with  deep 
sympathy  and  grave  concern  the  plight  of  the  people 
of  Russia  and  desires  to  aid  by  every  appropriate  means 
in  promoting  proper  opportunities  through  which  com- 
merce can  be  established  upon  a  sound  basis.  It  is  mani- 
fest to  this  Government  that  in  existing  circumstances 
there  is  no  assurance  for  the  development  of  trade,  as 
the  supplies  which  Russia  might  now  be  able  to  obtain 
would  be  wholly  inadequate  to  meet  her  needs,  and  no 


AMERICA  AND  THE  SOVIETS  5 

lasting  good  can  result  so  long  as  the  present  causes  of 
progressive  impoverishment  continue  to  operate.  It  is 
only  in  the  productivity  of  Russia  that  there  is  any  hope 
for  the  Russian  people  and  it  is  idle  to  expect  resump- 
tion of  trade  until  the  economic  bases  of  production  are 
securely  established.  Production  is  conditioned  upon 
the  safety  of  life,  the  recognition  by  firm  guarantees  of 
private  property,  the  sanctity  of  contract  and  the  rights 
of  free  labor. 

If  fundamental  changes  are  contemplated,  involving 
due  regard  for  the  protection  of  persons  and  property 
and  the  establishment  of  conditions  essential  to  the  main- 
tenance of  commerce,  this  Government  will  be  glad  to 
have  convincing  evidence  of  the  consummation  of  such 
changes,  and  until  this  evidence  is  supplied  this  Govern- 
ment is  unable  to  perceive  that  there  is  any  proper  basis 
for  considering  trade  relations. 

A  few  words  have  been  italicized  as  indicating  either 
features  of  the  Note  that  were  relatively  unnoticed  or 
features  of  especial  importance  in  connection  with  the 
data  presented  in  the  present  volume. 

Disturbed  by  the  vast  pro-Soviet  agitation,  falsely 
labeled  "  campaign  for  the  restoration  of  trade  rela- 
tions" which  was  being  carried  on  in  the  labor  unions 
— in  spite  of  Secretary  Hughes'  Note — President  Gom- 
pers  then  addressed  a  letter  to  the  Secretary  asking 
for  full  information  as  to  the  facts  in  the  case.  The 
Secretary's  answer  to  this  letter,  together  v/ith  his 
Note  written  a  few  weeks  earlier,  when  taken  together, 
give  a  clear  and  positive  statement  of  the  American 
policy.  (We  quote  the  two  letters  at  length  in  a  later 
chapter  in  discussing  the  Russian  trade  question.)  In 
his  letter  to  President  Gompers,  Mr.  Hughes  points  out 
the  impossibility  of  aiding  the  Russian  people  or  of 


6  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

improving  American  trade  with  that  country  or  of 
restoring  Eussian  credit  "so  long  as  the  present 
political  and  economic  system  continues."  Issued  at 
that  moment,  April  18th,  1921,  it  had  a  special  signifi- 
cance. It  indicated  that  the  American  Government 
attached  no  importance  whatever  to  the  so-called 
"reforms"  and  the  pretended  abandonment  of  com- 
munism by  the  Soviet  Government  .early  in  March.  For 
not  only  the  pro-Bolshevists  but  numerous  groups  of 
greedy  capitalists  and  their  newspapers  as  well  as  a 
number  of  well  meaning  but  uninformed  or  superficial 
editors  and  correspondents  had  swallowed  Lenin's 
bait,  that  is,  his  pretense  that  he  had  reformed  and 
had  compromised  fundamentally  with  "capitalism." 

In  this  letter  Mr.  Hughes  did  not  limit  himself  to 
pointing  out  the  incapacity  of  the  Soviet  Government 
to  organize  production.  Even  should  it  be  able  to  do 
so  successfully,  he  pointed  out  that  "the  attitude  and 
action  of  the  present  authorities  of  Eussia  have  tended 
to  undermine  its  political  and  economic  relations  with 
other  countries." 

In  the  Note  above  quoted,  in  refusing  to  receive  a 
Soviet  trade  delegation  Mr.  Hughes  had  stated  that 
among  the  fundamental  institutions  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion which  were  indispensable  if  Eussian  production 
was  to  be  restored  was  the  establishment  of  "freedom 
of  labor."  Evidence  given  below  will  show  that  the 
enslavement  of  labor  is  indeed  the  chief  underlying 
cause  of  the  entire  collapse  of  the  Bolshevist  system 
and  of  the  frightful  suffering  it  has  inflicted  not  only 
upon  labor  but  upon  the  entire  population  of  the 
country. 


AMERICA  AND  THE  SOVIETS  7 

America,  then,  has  fully  endorsed  the  stand  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  at  its  1920  convention. 
As  further  evidence  of  the  complete  harmony  between 
American  labor  and  the  rest  of  the  nation  upon  this 
subject,  we  may  point  to  the  able  statement  of  that 
eminent  representative  of  labor,  former  Secretary  of 
Labor,  William  B.  Wilson,  in  his  decisions  in  the  Mar- 
tens deportation  case.  The  decision  itself  is  a  highly 
important  state  document.  Its  principles  were  more 
briefly  summarized  in  a  letter  written  by  Mr.  Wilson 
a  few  weeks  later  (January  3,  1921)  to  Charles  Recht, 
then  Counsellor  of  the  Soviet  "Embassy"  and  now  in 
charge  of  Soviet  affairs  in  this  country.  In  this  letter 
Secretary  Wilson,  basing  his  statements  upon  a  vast 
number  of  documents  in  his  hands  and  upon  the  testi- 
mony of  Mr.  Martens,  the  Soviet  "Ambassador," 
reached  the  following  conclusions  as  to  the  character 
of  the  Soviet  regime  and  the  American  attitude  to- 
wards it: 

In  the  evidence  presented  to  me  in  the  Martens  case 
it  was  clearly  shown  that  a  group  of  men  calling  them- 
selves Communists  had  set  up  a  military  dictatorship 
in  Russia;  that  they  had  camouflaged  it  under  the 
name  of  a  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat,  seeking  to 
convey  the  impression  that  it  was  a  dictatorship  by 
the  proletariat ;  that  it  had  by  force  of  arms  introduced 
compulsory  labor,  in  other  words,  slavery,  into  Russia ; 
that  the  proletariat  were  compelled  to  work  at  occupa- 
tions selected  for  them  at  meager  wages  and  long  hours 
imposed  under  the  direction  of  the  military  masters. 
Naturally  the  sympathy  of  the  Administration  and  of 
the  American  people,  including  the  workers,  goes  out 
to  the  Russian  people,  under  such  circumstances,  just 


8         OUT  OF  THEIR:  OWN  MOUTHS 

Jis  our  sympathies  go  out  to  the  oppressed  of  all  lands 
no  matter  who  or  what  the  oppressor  may  be.  ... 

The  evidence  was  cumulative  and  conclusive  that  the 
military  dictatorship  of  Russia,  calling  itself  the  Soviet 
Government,  was  appropriating  large  sums  of  money 
to  stir  up  insurrection  by  force  of  arms  against  the 
United  States  Government.  It  is  a  novel  principle  in 
international  law  and  one  that  is  not  likely  to  be  gen- 
erally accepted,  that  a  newly  established  military  dicta- 
torship in  one  country  may  capitalize  the  traditional 
friendship  of  another  country  for  its  people  by  making 
a  pretense  of  wanting  to  establish  friendly  relations 
with  the  government  at  the  same  time  that  it  is  seeking 
to  destroy  it  by  stirring  up  insurrection. 

Finally  we  may  quote  a  few  words  from  Mr.  Herbert 
Hoover,  Secretary  of  Commerce,  the  world's  highest 
authority  on  European  relief.  Mr.  Hoover  believes  that 
nothing  of  any  consequence  can  be  done  for  the  Rus- 
sian people  as  long  as  the  Bolshevists  remain  on  their 
necks  and  these  are  the  reasons  he  gives  for  this  posi- 
tion (in  his  letter  of  March  21st,  1921) : 

So  long  as  Russia  is  controlled  by  the  Bolsheviki.  .  .  . 
the  question  of  trade  is  far  more  political  than  economic. 

There  are  no  export  commodities  in  Russia  worth  con- 
sideration except  gold,  platinum  and  jewelry  in  the 
hands  of  the  Bolsheviki  Government.  The  people  are 
starving,  cold,  under-clad.  If  they  had  any  consumable 
commodities  they  would  have  used  them  long  since. 

There  has  been  no  prohibition  on  trade.  The  real 
blockade  has  been  the  failure  of  the  Russians  to  produce 
anything  to  trade  with. 

Trading  for  this  parcel  of  gold  would  not  effect  this 
remedy — nor  would  the  goods  obtained  by  the  Bolsheviki 
restore  their  production.  That  requires  the  abandon- 
ment of  the  present  economic  system. 


AMERICA  AND  THE  SOVIETS  9 

On  the  day  of  the  issuance   of  Mr.   Hughes'  Note 
(March  25th)  Mr.  Hoover  further  declared: 


Secretary  Hughes 's  statement  on  the  Russian  trade 
situation  this  afternoon  shows  the  complete  agreement 
in  the  views  of  the  whole  administration. 

The  first  thing  to  be  determined  about  Russia  is  if, 
and  when,  they  change  their  economic  system.  (Our 
italics.) 

If  they  so  change  its  basis  as  to  accept  the  right  of 
private  property,  freedom  of  labor,  provide  for  the  safety 
of  human  life,  there  is  hope  of  their  recovery  from 
the  miseries  of  famine.  There  is  hope  also  of  a  slow 
recovery  in  production  and  the  upbuilding  of  trade. 

Nothing  is  more  important  to  the  whole  commercial 
world  than  the  recovery  of  productivity  in  Russia. 

These  very  explicit  and  positive  statements  of  Messrs. 
Hughes  and  Hoover  might  well  have  disposed  of  the 
question  of  the  American  Government's  position.  But 
so  powerful  is  the  pro-Soviet  propaganda  and  so  strong 
is  the  purpose  to  befriend  the  Bolshevist  Government 
at  any  cost  that  a  widespread  effort  was  made  to  explain 
away  the  Note  as  being  friendly  to  the  Soviets!  The 
Hearst  papers  and  their  Universal  Press  Service  boldly 
claimed  that  "not  one  word  of  the  statement  was  directed 
at  the  Russian  Government,  and  no  objection  to  the 
form  of  the  Soviet  Government  was  voiced" (  0  They 
then  declared,  on  the  very  day  of  the  note,  that  "it  is 
recognized  that  some  of  the  guarantees  demanded  by 
this  Government  as  a  preliminary  to  the  establishment 
of  trade  relations  already  have  been  announced  by 
Lenin. ' ' 


10  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

The  newspapers  mentioned  are  ardent  defenders  of 
the  Soviets,  But  certain  more  conservative  organs, 
wholly  opposed  to  Bolshevism,  also  found  some  way 
to  take  a  position  favorable  to  the  Soviets.  One  of 
the  leading  Democratic  newspapers  of  the  country, 
reversing  the  view  expressed  by  the  above  mentioned 
journals  that  the  Hughes  Note  was  to  be  praised 
because  it  was  friendly  to  the  Soviets,  argued  that  it  was 
to  be  blamed  because  it  was  too  hostile.  Wilson  and 
Colby  were  hostile  enough ;  Harding  and  Hughes  go  too 
far  when  they  are  more  hostile  still: 

Insisting  that  "production  is  conditioned  upon  the 
safety  of  life,  the  recognition  by  firm  guarantees  of 
private  property,  the  sanctity  of  contract  and  the  rights 
of  free  labor,"  they,  Harding  and  Hughes,  demand  in 
effect  an  economic  revolution  in  Russia,  and  it  is  a 
demand  that  cannot  very  well  be  substantiated  as  a  basis 
for  commerce. 

This  conservative  paper  then  proceeded  to  endorse 
the  entire  argument  upon  which  the  pro-Bolshevists 
now  stake  their  agitation:  Lenin,  it  appears,  has  sur- 
rendered to  "peasant  individualism."  "The  Com- 
munist autocracy  has  had  to  yield  to  rural  public 
opinion  backed  by  the  physical  power  of  the  peasant. 
.  .  .  What  was  called  in  the  beginning  a  necessary  but 
temporary  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  ran  its  course 
much  more  quickly  than  in  the  French  Revolution." 
What  truth  there  is  in  all  this — if  any — we  shall  show 
in  later  chapters.  Undoubtedly  something  of  this  kind 
may  happen  if  the  Soviets  are  not  further  bolstered 
up  by  political  recognition  and  financial  aid  from 


AMERICA  AND  THE  SOVIETS  11 

other  countries.  But  nothing  could  delay  the  desirable 
event  more  effectively  than  to  assume  it  has  occurred 
when  it  has  not.  This  newspaper  continues : 

Now  Lenin  "solves"  the  peasant  problem,  as  he  is 
said  to  be  solving  the  problem  of  capitalism  by  giving 
it  up.  In  what  is  incomparably  the  largest  field  of 
Russian  industry,  he  drops  Communism. 

Again  the  time  element  is  all  important.  If  it  is 
wholly  misleading  to  assume  a  momentous  event  that 
has  not  yet  taken  place,  it  is  equally  misleading  to 
date  in  the  present  an  event  that  has  occurred  long 
ago  and  so  to  attribute  it  to  present  causes — in  this 
instance  the  yielding  of  the  Soviets  to  the  pressure 
of  the  peasants  or  of  foreign  capitalists.  We  shall 
show  that  the  impossibility  of  applying  communism 
to  agriculture,  far  from  being  in  Bolshevist  minds  (as 
it  would  be  in  the  minds  of  the  rest  of  humanity)  an 
argument  for  abolishing  the  communist  dictatorship,  is 
precisely  the  one  reason  they  have  given  from  the  first 
for  establishing  that  dictatorship  and  the  one  reason 
why  they  urge  that — in  the  face  of  rising  peasant  dis- 
content— it  is  more  than  ever  essential  for  them  to 
maintain  it  now. 

Such  views  as  those  just  quoted  are  not  confined 
to  the  conservative  organs  of  the  opposition  party.  One 
of  the  leading  Republican  papers,  which  had  favored 
the  trade  agreement,  continued  to  insist  editorially  that 
the  question  was  whether  "Lenin  and  Trotzky  mean 
it  when  they  say  Bolshevism  is  dead" — though  this 
f  imaginary  statement  is  the  very  reverse  of  everything 


12  OUT   OF  THEIR   OWN    MOUTHS 

Trotzky  and  Lenin  have  been  saying.  The  Washington 
correspondent  of  another  leading  Republican  organ 
declared  that  "the  Russian  Bolsheviki  are  ready  to 
abandon  the  last  vestiges  of  their  program  and  to 
return  to  capitalism  in  industry  as  well  as  agriculture ' ' 
— a  statement  for  which  he  could  produce  no  substantia- 
tion whatever  from  any  quarter. 

Several  Republican  and  Democratic  Senators  were 
quoted  in  the  press  to  similar"  effect.  One  well-known 
Senator  is  reported  as  having  said: 

The  danger  that  existed  of  political  propaganda  in- 
spired and  paid  for  by  the  Russian  Government,  ha3 
practically  disappeared.  I  think  it  may  be  said  that  the 
Lenin-Trotzky  Government  has  abandoned  the  effort  to 
convert  the  world  and  is  modifying  its  own  Government 
into  a  much  more  conservative  form  than  it  started  with. 

The  word  "conservative"  as  well  as  the  word 
"moderate"  is  thus  being  freely  applied  to  those  ad- 
vanced extremists  and  revolutionaries  who  are  a  shade 
or  two  less  red  than  others  in  a  scale  of  violent  revolu- 
tion that  now  shows  half  a  hundred  varieties!  The 
statement  here  made  that  Lenin  and  Trotzky  are  aban- 
doning their  propaganda  for  world  revolt,  as  we  shall 
show,  is  negatived  by  the  entire  structure  and  func- 
tioning of  the  Communist-Soviet  machine.  In  the  mean- 
while we  may  quote  at  this  point — as  fairly  conclusive 
evidence — the  official  Soviet  wireless  reply  to  the  Hughes 
Note,  which  contains  also  a  smashing  rejoinder  to  the 
gratuitous  newspaper  assumptions  we  have  referred  to : 

The  American  Consul  in  Reval  has  given  our  pleni- 
potentiary representative  the  reply  sent  by  his  Govern- 


AMERICA  AND  THE  SOVIETS  13 

ment  to  the  last  communication  of  the  All-Russian 
Central  Executive  Committee.  The  Note  of  the  Ameri- 
can Government  points  out  that  trade  between  Russia 
and  America  can  only  be  resumed  when  the  former 
recognizes  private  property,  guarantees  "free  labor" 
and  personal  inviolability  and  has  a  market  large 
enough  for  the  export  of  stores  of  raw  material.  At 
the  same  time  the  American  press  states  that  hopes 
of  trade  with  Russia  are  not  lost,  as  Lenin  will  rapidly 
change  from  Communism  to  capitalism  and  all  the  hopes 
of  the  Americans  will  speedily  be  brought  about  by  the 
Bolsheviks  themselves.  The  shortsightedness  of  the 
tools  of  world  capital  is  extraordinary.  .  .  . 

The  hopes  of  world  capital  in  the  fall  of  Communism 
have  not  been  fulfilled.  And  now  that  we  have  reverted 
to  peaceful  reconstruction  and  are  introducing  a  prac- 
tical policy  in  order  to  alleviate  conditions  for  the 
peasants  who  have  suffered  from  failure  of  the  harvest, 
they  regard  this  as  a  sign  that  we  are  reverting  from 
Communism  to  capitalism.  It  goes  without  saying  that 
all  the  hopes  of  the  capitalists  are  doomed  to  failure. 


Later  the  official  organ  of  the  Moscow  Government, 
Izvestia,  made  still  more  clear  the  underlying  idea  of 
all  Bolshevistic  diplomatic  negotiations,  namely  that  the 
world  of  capitalistic  governments  is  being  forced  to 
recognize  and  to  compromise  with  Communism  as  em- 
bodied in  the  government  of  Soviet  Russia.  The  mouth- 
piece of  the  Soviets  repudiates  as  pure  nonsense  the 
supposition  that  they  are  surrendering  any  Communist 
principles  whatever.  At  the  same  time  it  may  be  noted 
that  the  Soviets  have  reached  a  perfectly  clear  compre- 
hension of  the  nature  of  the  American  reply — even  if  a 
number  of  American  newspapers  have  attempted  to  dis- 
guise it.  The  Izvestia  declares: 


14  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  [MOUTHS 

The  essence  of  the  Washington  answer  is  that  the  re- 
sumption of  commerce  with  Russia  will  be  possible  only 
after  we  have  returned  to  a  bourgeois  regime.  This  is 
pure  nonsense.  The  English  bourgeoisie  who  have  signed 
a  trade  agreement  with  us  did  not  consider  this  change 
necessary.  We  did  not  propose  to  the  Americans  to 
change  their  capitalistic  r.egime  for  a  communistic  one. 

But  neither  this  provocative  response  nor  anything 
the  Bolshevists  can  say  or  do — no  matter  how  aggres- 
sively revolutionary — can  put  a  stop  to  the  claims  made 
almost  daily  by  their  diplomatic  agents,  foreign  propa- 
gandists and  "liberal"  admirers  that  they  have  reformed. 
Each  minor  change  in  their  policy  is  held  to  demon- 
state  once  more  that  now  at  last  they  have  not  only 
thrown  the  entire  Bolshevist  system  overboard  but 
have  become  "moderates"  and  adopted  capitalism  and 
democracy.  During  recent  months  hardly  a  day  has 
passed  without  some  Russian  dispatch  that  the  final  step 
has  been  taken  and  Communism  abandoned.  Here  is 
the  crux  of  a  typical  dispatch  (dated  Riga,  May  2, 
1921) : 

Following  the  restoration  of  free  trade  to  coopera- 
tive societies,  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  taxation 
in  kind,  and  other  recent  concessions,  the  decision  to 
restore  the  coinage  of  silver  marks,  is  according  to 
recent  arrivals  from  Moscow,  Premier  Lenin's  final 
admission  of  the  impossibility  of  the  original  Com- 
munistic theories  at  this  time. 

Now  the  original  theory  of  the  Russian  Communist  or 
Bolshevist  Party  was  precisely  that  it  is  impossible  to 
apply  Communism  to  the  dominating  industry  of  Russia 


AMERICA  AND  THE  SOVIETS  13 

(agriculture)  at  the  present  time.  This  theory  is  not 
only  the  one  reason  for  the  dictatorship  of  the  pro- 
letariat, as  we  have  pointed  out,  but  it  is  also  the  sole 
reason  for  the  establishment  of  the  Soviet  form  of 
government  as  opposed  to  the  democratic  Constitutional 
Assembly. 

The  advocates  of  friendly  relations  with  the  Soviets, 
approaching  or  actually  amounting  to  their  official 
recognition,  have  not  been  satisfied  with  hailing  every 
petty  advance  of  Bolshevism  in  the  direction  of  more 
practical  methods  of  oppression  as  a  final  abandonment 
of  Communism.  They  have  also  seized  upon  every  new 
theoretical  formulation  by  Lenin  as  a  surrender  to  capi- 
talism— in  spite  of  the  fact  that  new  encyclicals  by  the 
Bolshevist  high  priest  have  been  handed  down  to  his 
disciples  several  times  each  year  ever  since  1917.  No 
close  or  persistent  student  of  these  pronouncements  has 
missed  or  could  miss  the  fact  that  all  the  essential  foun- 
dations of  Soviet  rule,  as  interpreted  by  Lenin,  remain 
now  what  they  were  in  1917.  But  journalists  and  others 
who  are  either  totally  ignorant  of  the  Soviet  leader's 
thought  or  know  it  only  at  second  hand  easily  find  in 
each  new  formulation  phrases  with  which  they  are  un- 
familiar or  expressions  they  do  not  understand.  This 
is  why  it  happens  so  frequently  that  some  theory  which 
is  the  strongest  possible  reaffirmation  of  Bolshevism  is 
interpreted  as  a  compromise  or  surrender. 

An  excellent  illustration  is  the  long  article  in  the 
Pravda  of  May  3d,  in  which  Lenin  explains  to  his  fol- 
lowers the  theoretical  foundation  of  those  widely  dis- 
cussed tactical  changes  made  by  the  Bolshevists — for  the 
purpose  of  strengthening  their  despotic  power — at  the 


16  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

time  of  the  L/ommunist  Party  Congress  held  in  March, 
1921. 

Lenin  says  in  this  article  that  it  is  nonsense  to  speak 
of  these  changes  as  "a  renunciation  of  the  proletarian 
dictatorship"  and  proves  his  point.  But  correspondents 
continue  to  insist  upon  the  contrary  interpretation, 
caught  by  Lenin's  use  of  the  expression  "state  capital- 
ism" as  applied  to  the  present  Soviet  policy.  Now  mod- 
erate Socialists  have  always  referred  to  this  intermedi- 
ate phase  between  capitalism  and  socialism  by  the  apolo- 
getic term  "state  socialism,"  while  ultra-revolutionists 
have  known  this  identical  thing  under  the  derisive  term 
"state-capitalism."  To  the  latter  this  expression  is 
derogatory,  though  non-socialists  take  it  to  represent  a 
policy  more  friendly  to  capitalism,  more  reasonable  than 
"state  socialism,"  and  a  totally  different  thing.  To 
every  Bolshevist  the  expression,  "state  capitalism," 
means  that  the  present  policy,  revolutionary  and  ex- 
treme as  it  may  still  seem  to  the  rest  of  the  world,  is 
but  the  merest  beginning  of  the  thoroughgoing  commu- 
nism they  have  in  view  and  is  introduced  solely  as  a 
means  to  further  steps  in  the  communist  direction.  Yet 
Lenin's  clear  statement  on  this  point  is  interpreted  by 
certain  correspondents  as  a  concession  to  capitalism. 

Lenin's  article  above  referred  to  is  quoted  by  Michael 
Farbman  in  the  New  York  World  as  follows: 

"The  way  to  State-socialism,"  he  says,  "lies  through 
state  capitalism.  (German  state  capitalism.)  We  are 
unable  and  long  will  be  unable  to  supply  the  peasants 
with  all  they  need.  This  will  be  possible  only  after 
electrification  of  the  whole  country  ( !)  has  been  accom- 
plished. 


AMERICA  AND  THE  SOVIETS  17 

"At  the  present  stage  we  must  choose  from  two  alter- 
natives. Either  we  must  prohibit  every  kind  of  private 
exchange  of  goods,  otherwise  capitalism.  Such  a  policy 
is  idiotic  and  would  mean  suicide  for  the  party  attempt- 
ing to  introduce  it,  for  such  policy  is  economically  im- 
possible. The  other  alternative  is  to  aid  the  development 
of  capitalism  in  Russia,  while  we  are  trying  to  transform 
it  into  state  capitalism.  This  is  economically  possible 
and  does  not  contradict  the  proletarian  dictatorship.  On 
the  contrary  state  capitalism  is  one  stage  in  the  advance 
of  free  capitalism." 

The  pessimism  prevailing  in  Communist  circles  Lenine 
explains  by  the  mistake  in  comparing  how  much  state 
capitalism  is  behind  Socialism.  One  should  compare  how 
much  state  capitalism  is  in  advance  of  petty  bourgeois 
economy.  "Only  then,"  concludes  the  dictator,  "will 
we  see  how  great  the  progress  is  we  have  made.  The 
chief  problem  now  is  to  find  the  proper  methods  of  how 
to  turn  the  inevitable  growth  of  capitalism  in  Russia  into 
the  form  of  state  capitalism  now  and  assist  in  securing 
speedy  conversion  of  state  capitalism  into  Socialism." 

Another  passage  from  the  same  speech  (taken  from 
the  Bolshevist  organ,  Pravda,  and  reproduced  in  the 
German  Socialist  Press)  explains  even  more  clearly 
Lenin's  motive  in  advocating  the  policy  of  state  capital- 
ism. As  Lenin  said,  "the  Communists  did  not  need  to 
fear  the  development  of  state  capitalism  as  they  can  fix 
limits  for  it  to  suit  themselves.  Capitalism  under  the 
control  of  a  state  in  which  the  proletariat  held  all  the 
power  in  its  hands,  was  not  contradictory  to  the  ideas 
of  Communism." 

Changes  are  taking  place  in  Soviet  Russia.  But 
what  is  the  nature  of  these  changes  ?  That  is  the  ques- 
tion. It  cannot  be  answered  either  by  the  Bolshevists 


18  OUT  OF  THEimoWN   MOUTHS 

or  by  their  friends  and  apologists.  Only  a  careful 
examination  of  their  own  publications  can  afford  an 
answer.  Fortunately  these  are  now  at  hand — in  abun- 
dance. They  bring  the  whole  movement  into  the  light, 
and  answer  every  reasonable  question. 

In  addition  to  the  vast  accumulation  of  docu- 
mentary evidence  from  Russia  and  the  weighty  de- 
cisions of  two  American  administrations,  we  have 
had  adverse  comment  on  Soviet  Russia  from  practi- 
cally every  labor  delegation  that  has  visited  that 
country  in  the  last  twelve  months — from  Germany, 
Italy,  Sweden,  Spain  and  other  countries.  Only  the 
British  report  was  ambiguous  on  certain  points,  but 
a  large  part  of  the  delegation,  including  Turner,  Shaw, 
Mrs.  Snowden,  Dr.  Guest  and  Bertrand  Russell,  who 
accompanied  the  delegation,  was  overwhelmingly  ad- 
verse—after having  seen  the  Bolshevist  regime  with 
their  own  eyes.  Influenced  by  the  reports  of  Dittmann 
and  Crispien,  both  of  them  radical  Socialists,  the  Ger- 
man labor  union  movement  is  now  lined  up  almost 
solidly  against  the  Soviets. 

What  has  been  the  effect  of  this  avalanche  of  evidence 
and  testimony  on  the  pro-Bolshevist  agitation  in  this 
country?  Practically  none  at  all.  In  May,  1921,  the 
propaganda  of  falsification  continues  unabated.  The 
position  of  the  writers  and  speakers  who  are  active 
in  this  campaign  is  similar  to  that  of  the  American 
Socialist  Party,  which  still  remains  with  one  foot  in 
and  one  foot  out  of  the  Third  Internationale.  The 
Executive  Committee  of  that  body  reports  that  the 
"Socialist  Party  of  America  has  always  given  its  un- 
wavering support  to  the  Soviet  Government  of  Russia, ' ' 


AMERICA  AND  THE  SOVIETS  19 

while  the  resolution  carried  by  the  convention  in  Sep- 
tember, 1920,  and  later  by  referendum  reads  in  part 
as  follows: 

Socialism  is  in  complete  control  of  the  great  country 
of  Russia.  ...  It  should  be  the  task  of  the  Socialist 
Internationale  to  aid  our  comrades  in  Russia  to  main- 
tain and  fortify  their  political  control. 

So  also  the  pro-Bolshevist  "liberals"  in  America,  as 
well  as  their  counterparts  in  Europe,  and  all  the  Social- 
ist parties  belonging  to  the  Second  Internationale, 
including  the  British  Labor  Party,  have  done  every- 
thing in  their  power  to  aid  the  Soviet  Government  and 
recognize  the  Bolshevists  either  as  "comrades"  or — 
in  the  case  of  the  so-called  liberals — as  democrats  de- 
serving support. 

The  American  Socialist  Party  refuses  to  accept  the 
principle  of  "the  dictatorship  of  the  Proletariat  in  the 
form  of  Soviets."  It  also  refuses  to  conduct  a  revolu- 
tion through  orders  issued  from  Moscow,  but  it  has 
done  and  pledged  itself  to  do  everything  in  its  power 
to  aid  that  regime  in  Russia — and  in  so  doing,  it  also 
aids  the  Soviet  Government  and  the  Third  Interna- 
tionale in  their  agitation  in  all  countries — except  the 
United  States.  So  also  the  European  Socialists  in  many 
countries  of  Europe  are  aiding  the  Soviet  agitation  in 
all  countries  except  their  own.  Not  only  this  but  these 
same  organizations,  while  refusing  to  accept  Moscow 
rule,,  are  supporting  the  Soviet  agitation  in  their  own 
countries  in  many  points. 


II 

THE  PRACTICAL  FOUNDATION  OF  BOLSHEVISM 
—MENDACIOUS  PROPAGANDA 

THE  Bolshevists  have  frequently  declared  that  the 
foundation  of  their  whole  movement  is  propaganda. 
This,  in  itself,  is  an  amazing  confession,  but  more  amaz- 
in  still  is  their  frank  avowal  of  the  character  of  this 
propaganda.  The  ninth  Communist  Congress  (March- 
April,  1920)  says  on  this  subject: 

The  first  condition  of  the  success  of  the  Soviet  Re- 
public in  all  departments,  including  the  economic,  is 
chiefly  systematic  printed  agitation. 

As  to  the  nature  of  the  propaganda,  we  have  the 
following  historic  utterance  of  the  Bolshevist  high 
priest  himself  in  regard  to  the  methods  to  be  used  in 
order  to  destroy  the  labor  unions: 

We  must  know  how  to  apply  at  need,  knavery,  deceit, 
illegal  methods,  hiding  truth  by  silence,  in  order  to 
penetrate  to  the  very  heart  of  the  trade  unions,  to 
remain  there  and  to  accomplish  there  the  Communist 
task. — Lenin,  in  "Radicalism,  the  Infantile  Malady  of 
Communism!" 

It  must  not  be  supposed  for  one  moment  that  the 
childlike  stupidity  involved  in  this  public  pronounce- 
ment of  the  intent  to  deceive  is  exceptional  for  the 

20 


FOUNDATIONS  OF  BOLSHEVISM  21 

great  Bolshevist  "master  mind."  In  his  letter  of  last 
November  to  British  labor  he  shows  the  same  mixture 
of  simplicity  and  arrogance.  The  substance  of  that 
letter  was  summed  up  last  November  by  the  pro-Soviet 
London  Daily  News  as  follows : 

The  true  British  Communist  is  told  that  it  is  his  duty 
to  cooperate  with  Mr.  Henderson,  Mr.  Snowden  and 
other  degraded  ' '  bourgeois, ' '  in  order  to  return  members 
to  Parliament  pledged  to  destroy  from  within  that 
institution,  and  incidentally  to  expose  and  ruin  Mr. 
Henderson,  Mr.  Snowden  and  the  colleagues  who  are 
to  assist  unwittingly  in  the  operation.  And  this  is  said 
openly  in  the  hearing  of  the  intended  victims  and  of  the 
millions  who  are  yet  unconverted  to  the  Gospel  of  Com- 
munist "hate."  No  one  that  we  remember,  except  some 
of  the  German  war  lords  towards  the  end  of  the  great 
struggle,  has  ever  thought  aloud  in  public  in  this  semi- 
insane  manner.  The  parallel  is  ominous. 

This  letter  was  such  an  exhibition  of  incredible 
ignorance  regarding  Great  Britain,  combined  with  in- 
capacity for  the  simplest  logical  reasoning,  that  even  the 
friendly  British  Labor  Party  lost  its  patience  while  The 
Daily  News,  unable  to  restrain  its  wrath,  thus  character- 
ized the  Bolshevist  "Czar": 

Mad  Kings,  Tzars  and  Kaisers  ruin,  as  a  rule,  only 
themselves  and  their  subjects;  a  mad  demagogue  pro- 
vides every  half-witted  enemy  of  liberty  with  a  moral 
to  his  servile  tale.  .  .  . 

Bolshevism  has  many  enemies,  but  it  has  none  so 
formidable  as  its  foremost  figure.  "We  can  imagine  a 
man  thinking  in  the  sort  of  way  in  which  Lenin  talks 
to  his  British  Communist  "Comrades"  in  the  extracts 
from  his  new  book  printed  elsewhere  in  our  columns 


22  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

to-day.  "We  can  imagine  a  man  unfolding  to  like-minded 
friends  in  the  privacy  of  his  own  house  some  such  plan 
of  campaign  as  he  suggests  to  them.  But  that  anyone 
having  conceived  such  a  design  should  proceed  to  pro- 
claim it  from  the  housetops  is  a  thing  almost  incredible. 
It  argues  an  arrogant  contempt  for  all  possible  oppo- 
sition which,  to  those  who  know  the  real  strength  of 
''Communism"  in  this  country,  seems  not  far  removed 
from  insanity. 

The  workings  of  the  mind  of  this  half-crazed  and 
inflated  fanatic  are  important  not  only  as  largely  domi- 
nating the  movement  but  because  they  are  typical  of 
his  even  less  gifted  Bolshevists.  Perhaps  the  greatest 
oratorical  effort  of  his  life  was  at  the  Second  Congress 
of  the  Communist  Internationale  held  at  Moscow  in  July, 
1920.  There,  in  rapid  succession,  he  made  a  whole  string 
of  utterly  ignorant  or  consciously  false  statements  about 
Germany,  America,  Japan  and  France — making  these 
propositions  the  very  foundation  of  the  world  policy  of 
the  Internationale  and  foreign  policy  of  the  Soviets. 
Here  are  a  few  of  his  remarks : 

You  know  that  the  Versailles  Treaty  forced  Germany 
and  a  whole  series  of  conquered  States,  into  conditions 
of  absolute  impossibility  of  economic  existence,  into  con- 
ditions of  complete  absence  of  rights,  of  utter  'humilia- 
tion. .  .  .  America,  which  profited  most  of  all  from  the 
war,  being  converted  into  a  rich  country  from  a  country 
that  had  a  mass  of  debts.  .  .  .  Japan,  which  profited  much 
by  remaining  outside  the  actual  conflict,  seizing  the 
Asiatic  continent.  .  .  . 

France's  assets  are  three  and  one-quarter  billions, 
while  her  liabilities  are  ten  and  a  half;  that  is  three 
times  more.  .  .  .  This  is  the  country  which  has  lived 


FOUNDATION  OF  BOLSHEVISM  23 

as  a  progressive  civilized  country  because  its  savings 
(colonial  thefts,  called  savings),  made  it  possible  for 
her  to  lend  billions  to  other  countries,  and  particularly 
to  Russia. 

No  more  false,  boastful,  or  deluded  utterance  was  ever 
recorded  from  the  lips  of  Kaiser  or  Czar  than  the  fol- 
lowing from  Lenin's  much  advertised  but  little  read 
"moderate"  speech  at  the  Congress  of  the  Russian  Com- 
munist Party  in  March,  1921 ;  nor  could  any  citation 
better  illustrate  the  great  hallucination  upon  which  all 
present  Bolshevist  calculations  are  built: 

Certainly  the  Communist  International  which  at  the 
time  of  last  year's  Congress  existed  only  in  the  form  of 
proclamations  has  now  begun  to  act  as  an  independent 
body  in  every  country,  and  as  more  than  merely  a  van- 
guard party.  Communism  has  become  the  central  ques- 
tion of  the  whole  labor  movement.  In  Germany,  France, 
and  Italy,  the  Communist  International  has  become  the 
center  not  only  of  the  labor  movement,  but  of  the  whole 
political  life  of  the  country.  It  was  impossible  to  pick 
up  a  German  or  a  French  newspaper  last  autumn  with- 
out seeing  discussions  on  Moscow  and  the  Bolsheviks,  and 
how  the  twenty-one  conditions  of  entry  into  the  Third 
International  had  become  the  central  question  of  the 
political  life  of  those  countries.  This  is  our  gain  of 
which  no  one  can  deprive  us.  (Russian  Press  Review, 
March  15th,  1921.) 

The  complete  falsity  of  the  entire  Bolshevist  propa- 
ganda may  be  best  understood  by  Americans  from  a 
few  quotations  suggesting  the  picture  that  is  presented 
to  the  Russian  people  of  America  and  of  the  rest  of 
the  world.  As  the  Bolshevists  have  a  monopoly  of 
the  press  and  even  of  the  paper  of  the  country,  thus 


24  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

effectively  precluding  the  expression  of  non-Bolshevist 
opinion,  they  are  able  to  a  considerable  degree  to  im- 
press these  pictures  upon  the  minds  of  the  Russian  people 
and  to  shape  their  attitude  to  America  and  other  coun- 
tries accordingly.  According  to  Mrs.  Snowden  and 
other  recent  visitors,  the  Russian  people  have  been  per- 
suaded by  such  methods  to  believe  that  Bolshevism  is 
spreading  all  the  world  over  and  that  many  countries 
are  on  the  verge  of  Bolshevist  revolutions.  We  read 
frequently  in  the  Bolshevist  press  also  statements  like 
the  following:  "If  we  compare  the  conditions  of  life 
in  Russia  with  the  conditions  of  life  in  the  West,  we 
have  to  state  that  our  situation  is  a  brilliant  one." 
(From  Boyevaya  Pravda,  May  19,  1920.) 

Here  are  a  few  statements  illustrating  American 
news  as  it  appears  in  the  Soviet  wireless: 

Russian  workmen,  emigrants  who  have  just  returned 
from  America  and  are  now  in  Sormovo,  state  that  the 
Russians  in  America  are  suffering  great  hardships. 
They  experience  there  all  the  horrors  of  prison  life. 
Workmen  are  arrested  for  participation  in  party  con- 
ferences; torture  is  resorted  to  when  they  are  being 
cross-examined.  Many  unions  are  obliged  to  work  in 
secret.  (From  Moscow  wireless,  January  4,  1921.) 

The  workers  say  that  the  work  of  the  American  Bol- 
shevik party  is  proceeding  successfully  and  that  in  New 
York  alone  there  are  200,000  members  in  tlie  party. 
(From  Moscow  wireless  message,  via  London,  January 
4,  1921.) 

The  American  Government  has  asked  Latvia  to  con- 
sent to  allow  100,000  Russians  to  proceed  to  Soviet 
Russia  through  her  territory.  The  American  Govern- 
ment intends  to  deport  these  Russians  in  the  near 
future.  (From  Moscow  wireless,  February  7,  1921.) 


FOUNDATION.  OF  BOLSHEVISM  25 

The  head  of  the  All  Russian  Soviet  of  Trade  Unions, 
Tomsky,  thus  pictures  the  position  of  the  President  of 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor: 

Gompers,  when  he  starts  out  for  conferences,  sur- 
rounds himself  with  five  experienced  boxers.  (From 
Izvestia,  October  19, 1920.) 

The  Soviet  regime  is  keeping  a  number  of  Americans 
as  hostages  in  the  hope  that  it  will  be  able  to  use  them 
to  compel  recognition  by  the  American  Government — 
a  method  which  undoubtedly  had  considerable  effect 
in  Great  Britain.  Among  these  hostages  is  the  well- 
known  Ked  Cross  worker,  Kilpatrick.  When  first 
captured  by  the  famous  Bolshevist  cavalry  General, 
Budenny,  Kilpatrick  reported  that  the  chief  intel- 
ligence officer  insisted  "that  the  American  working 
classes  were  starving  and  the  whole  country  on  the 
verge  of  revolution."  This  was  at  the  end  of  1920! 
Yet,  the  Russian  intelligence  officer  could  have  reached 
no  other  conclusion  from  the  Bolshevist  press. 

If  a  government  appeals  to  its  own  people  largely 
on  the  basis  of  such  falsehoods,  we  can  imagine  how 
much  reliance  is  to  be  placed  upon  Soviet  statements 
about  their  own  performances  especially  issued  for  con- 
sumption abroad. 

The  character  of  the  Soviet  regime  in  Russia  and 
of  the  Communist  Internationale  based  upon  it  can 
be  understood  only  if  we  grasp  firmly  and  keep  steadily 
in  mind  the  utter  and  wholesale  mendacity  of  the  Bol- 
shevist propaganda.  Practically  every  statement  that 
comes  directly  or  indirectly  from  Bolshevist  sources 
is  vitiated,  while  statements  emanating  from  the  pro- 


26  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

Bolshevists  who,  in  addition  to  being  indoctrinated 
with  this  Bolshevist  contempt  for  truth  are,  almost  with- 
out exception,  wofully  ignorant  of  Russia,  are  often  still 
more  fanciful. 

It  is  the  vast  extent  and  persistence  of  this  propa- 
ganda smoke-screen  that  has  obscured  Soviet  Russia 
from  our  eyes,  and  not  the  lack  of  well  authenticated 
facts  or  any  incomprehensible  mystery  in  Soviet  Russia 
or  in  Bolshevism. 

The  enormous  role  played  by  mendacious  propaganda 
in  the  Bolshevist  political  system  arises  only  in  part  from 
the  character  of  the  propaganda  and  in  part  from  the 
monopoly  they  have  established  in  the  control  of  edu- 
cation and  the  press  (including  the  monopoly  of  paper) 
together  with  their  prohibition  of  free  speech  and  assem- 
blage for  all  opposition  parties. 

It  may  be  doubted  if  any  State  Socialist  writer  has 
hitherto  even  conceived  an  Utopian  system  under  which 
all  printed  matter  whatever  is  controlled  by  the  State. 
Not  only  have  the  Communists  set  up  such  a  State  con- 
trol but  they  have  established  at  the  same  time  a  con- 
trol over  the  state  by  the  very  small  group  which  domi- 
nates the  Communist  Party,  as  we  show  in  following 
chapters.  We  read  in  a  recent  despatch : 

All  payments  for  newspapers,  books,  magazines, 
pamphlets  and  pictures  is  abolished  in  a  decree  of  the 
People's  Commissaries.  Printed  matter  may  be  distrib- 
uted among  organizations  and  institutions,  but  not  sold 
to  the  public. 

In  other  words  a  small  group  has  undertaken  to  estab- 
lish a  complete  monopoly  over  the  intellectual  output  of 


FOUNDATION  OF  BOLSHEVISM  27 

the  country.  This  group  has  practically  attempted  to 
direct  the  entire  intellectual  intake  of  a  hundred  million 
people!  Now  let  us  recall  once  more  the  character  of 
the  Communist  intellectual  output — as  already  sketched 
— and  we  can  begin  to  realize  how  monstrous  is  the  crime 
that  is  being  attempted  against  the  soul  and  mind  of  the 
Russian  people. 

But  this  is  only  one  aspect — though  the  most  funda- 
mental— of  Bolshevist  rule.  We  shall  now  take  up  some 
others. 


Ill 


THE  POLITICAL  FOUNDATION:  WAR  AGAINST 
DEMOCRACY 

BOLSHEVISM  arose  as  a  repudiation  of  democracy, 
when  Lenin  employed  a  company  of  armed  sailors  to 
disperse  the  Constitutional  Assembly — which  had  been 
deliberately  and  fairly  elected  by  the  entire  Russian 
people.  The  Bolshevists  have  never  held  one  election 
under  universal  suffrage  in  Russia  since  that  day.  Far 
from  apologizing,  they  have  boasted  of  their  action 
in  overthrowing  the  constituent  assembly.  Their  print- 
ing presses  have  been  occupied  not  with  apologies,  but 
with  seeking  plausible  phrases  with  which  to  cover 
their  reactionary  despotism,  such  as  "dictatorship  of 
the  proletariat,"  "Soviets,"  "the  rule  of  the  workmen 
and  peasants." 

At  first  Lenin  endeavored  also  to  distort  and  twist 
the  word  "democracy"  to  his  purposes,  but  the  Soviet 
regime  was  steadily  becoming  more  and  more  anti- 
democratic and  the  effort  was  soon  abandoned.  It  has 
been  widely  claimed  that  at  the  Soviet  Congress  in 
December,  1920,  and  in  the  Communist  Party  Congress 
in  March,  1921,  the  Bolshevists  abandoned  a  large  part 
of  their  practices  and  doctrines,  threw  communism 
overboard  and  adopted  capitalism.  The  fact  is  that  one 
steady  and  ceaseless  change  in  the  Bolshevist  position  has 
been  to  get  farther  and  farther  away  from  democracy 

28 


THE  POLITICAL  FOUNDATION  29 

and  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  absolute  dictatorship  of 
Lenin  and  those  about  him. 

At  the  outset  Lenin  made  a  strained  effort  to  claim 
that  the  Bolshevist  regime  was  democratic.  In  order 
to  do  this  he  made  use  of  the  favorite  Bolshevist  propa- 
ganda trick  of  employing  a  word  to  mean  the  very 
opposite  of  what  it  does  mean.  Nevertheless  at  that 
time  he  did  wish  the  world  to  believe  that  the  Bolshevists, 
in  some  sense,  represented  the  Russian  people. 

The  Soviet  of  Workers'  and  Soldiers'  Delegates  con- 
stitutes the  form  of  government  by  the  workers,  and 
represents  the  interest  of  all  the  poorest  of  our  people, 
of  nine-tenths  of  the  population,  aiming  to  secure  peace, 
bread  and  liberty.  .  .  .  (Nicolai  Lenin  in  a  book  entitled 
"The  Proletarian  Revolution  in  Russia,"  edited  by 
Louis  C.  Fraina,  pp.  24-25). 

In  the  Die  Kommunistische  Internationale  in  1919 
Lenin  similarly  wrote: 

So  Soviet  or  proletarian  democracy  has  its  birthplace 
in  Russia.  It  represents  another  stage  in  evolution  fol- 
lowing upon  the  Paris  Commune.  .  .  .  For  the  first  time 
in  the  history  of  the  world  a  Soviet  or  proletarian 
democracy  has  created  a  democracy  of  the  masses  of 
the  working  people,  of  the  laborers  and  the  small 
peasantry. 

Never  before  in  history  has  there  been  a  government 
truly  representing  the  majority  of  the  people  and  render- 
ing effective  the  actual  power  of  this  majority  except 
the  Soviet. 

So  anxious  was  the  Bolshevist  dictator  to  claim  that 
he  had  the  support  of  the  Russian  people  and  so  con- 


30  OUT  OF- THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

fident  was  he  of  his  capacity  to  win  that  support  that 
he  even  had  the  courage  to  make  democracy  fundamental 
in  the  Communist  doctrine  as  he  formulated  it  at  that 
time.  This  may  be  seen  in  his  report  to  the  Communist 
Congress  in  March,  1919 — a  report  accepted,  like  all  of 
Lenin's,  by  the  Congress.  In  this  report,  reproduced  in 
the  Petrograd  Pravda  of  March  8,  1919,  we  read: 


That  which  definitely  distinguishes  a  dictatorship  of 
the  proletariat  from  a  dictatorship  of  other  classes,  from 
a  dictatorship  of  the  bourgeoisie  in  all  the  civilized 
capitalist  countries,  is  that  the  dictatorship  of  the  land- 
lords and  of  the  bourgeoisie  was  the  forcible  suppression 
of  the  resistance  of  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the 
population,  namely,  the  toilers.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  is  the  forcible  suppression 
of  the  resistance  of  the  exploiters,  that  is,  of  an  insignifi- 
cant minority  of  the  population — of  landlords  and 
capitalists. 

It  therefore  follows  that  a  dictatorship  of  the  pro- 
letariat must  necessarily  carry  with  it  not  only  changes 
in  the  form  and  institutions  of  democracy,  speaking  in 
general  terms,  but  specifically  such  a  change  as  would 
secure  an  extension  such  as  has  never  been  seen  in  the 
history  of  the  world  of  the  actual  use  of  democratism 
by  the  toiling  classes. 

And  in  actual  fact  the  form  of  dictatorship  of  the 
proletariat  which  has  already  been  worked  out  in  prac- 
tice, that  is,  the  Soviet  authority  in  Russia,  the  Rate 
system  in  Germany,  the  shop  stewards'  committees,  and 
other  similar  Soviet  institutions  in  other  countries,  all 
represent  and  realize  for  the  toiling  classes,  that  is,  for 
the  overwhelming  majority  of  the  population,  this  actual 
possibility  to  use  democratic  rights  and  freedoms,  which 
possibility  never  existed,  even  approximately,  in  the  very 
best  and  most  democratic  bourgeois  republics. 


THE  POLITICAL  FOUNDATION  31 

Of  course,  there  was  never  any  foundation  in  fact 
for  these  statements  any  more  than  there  is  any  truth 
in  most  of  the  other  assertions  of  this  Communist  Marx. 
The  Reign  of  Terror  and  the  dictatorship  of  the  Com- 
munist Party  held  in  Soviet  Russia  then  as  now.  More- 
over Lenin  himself  was  forced  to  state  repeatedly  that 
in  using  the  word  " democracy"  he  did  not  mean  to 
suggest  anything  at  all  similar  to  any  democracy  that 
had  ever  existed  anywhere  in  the  world  before,  until, 
finally,  he  was  forced  to  give  such  strange  interpreta- 
tions to  the  word  as  to  make  it  mean  its  very  opposite. 

On  the  8th  of  April,  1920,  he  said  at  the  Russian 
Labor  Union  Congress  that  no  state  had  shown  such 
a  democratic  spirit  as  Soviet  Russia  and  proceeded  to 
show  what  he  meant  by  democracy  by  demanding  that 
the  policy  be  continued  of  "making  the  laboring  masses 
participate  in  politics  under  the  direction  of  the  Com- 
munist Party." 

During  the  course  of  1920  the  anti-democratic  course 
of  the  Soviet  regime  became  more  and  more  marked  and 
its  support  among  the  population  became  narrower  and 
narrower.  In  the  opening  speech  of  the  Congress  of 
the  Communist  Internationale,  Zinoviev  declared: 


The  idea  of  democracy  has  faded  away  before  our 
very  eyes.  When  the  American  bourgeoisie  before  the 
eyes  of  the  whole  world  suspended  constitutional  guaran- 
tees, when  this  much-praised  democracy  violated  all  the 
principles  established  by  it — by  this  it  itself  determined 
its  place.  On  this  question  there  should  not  be  two 
opinions.  In  noting  the  victory  over  the  II  Interna- 
tionale it  is  necessary  to  emphasize  the  much-debated 
point,  and  finish  once  for  all  with  democratic  tendencies. 


32  OUT  OF  THEIR   OWN   MOUTHS 

A  very  clear  statement  of  the  steady  intensification  of 
the  war  against  democracy  that  has  been  going  on  cease- 
lessly in  Soviet  Russia  has  been  made  by  Isaac  A.  Hour- 
wich,  recently  legal  adviser  for  the  Russian  Soviet 
Bureau  in  America: 

"All  movements  heretofore  have  been  movements  of 
minorities  or  in  the  interests  of  minorities.  The  pro- 
letarian movement  is  an  independent  movement  of  the 
enormous  majority."  From  the  Communist  Manifesto 
of  Karl  Marx  and  Frederick  En  gels.  .  .  . 

The  Bolshevik  revolution  dealt  a  heavy  blow  to  that 
theory.  In  Russia  the  proletariat  is  only  a  minority 
— this  fact  is  not  disputed  by  either  the  Bolsheviki  or 
the  anti-Bolsheviki,  and  it  is  this  minority  that  seized 
the  political  power  and  established  a  dictatorship  of 
the  proletariat.  .  .  .  This  is  the  essence  of  the  dictator- 
ship of  the  proletariat. 

The  Communist  Parties  of  all  countries  and  even  the 
Socialist  Center  [i.e.,  the  Menshevists  and  other  orthodox 
Marxists]  have  accepted  the  new  formula — the  dicta- 
torship of  the  proletariat  through  the  Soviets,  and  have 
renounced  "democracy"  in  the  sense  in  which  that 
term  had  been  understood  in  all  socialist  platforms 
prior  to  the  Bolshevik  revolution.  At  times  the  old 
word  "democracy"  is  still  used,  but  a  new  meaning 
is  read  into  it.  In  the  discussion  of  the  21  points  many 
communist  leaders  have  outspokenly  declared  against 
democracy  and  in  favor  of  dictatorship. 

The  truth  is  that  experience  has  demonstrated  to  the 
communists  that  even  in  the  most  highly  developed 
capitalistic  countries  (except,  perhaps  England)  the 
proletariat  is  as  yet  not  the  majority  of  the  adult  popu- 
lation. Therefore,  the  proletariat  is  as  yet  power- 
less to  establish  socialism  through  the  machinery  of 
democracy.  The  proletariat  is  accordingly  faced  with 
the  alternative  of  postponing  the  establishment  of 


THE  POLITICAL  FOUNDATION  33 

socialism  until  the  course  of  capitalistic  development 
will  raise  it  to  a  majority  of  the  population  or  of  seiz- 
ing the  powers  of  government  by  an  uprising  of  an 
armed  minority,  and  establishing  a  dictatorship  which 
does  not  need  the  support  of  the  majority  of  the  voters. 

This  quotation  is  from  the  Socialist  Review,  April, 
1921. 

Indeed  a  thoroughly  anti-democratic  conception  ruled 
Soviet  Eussia  from  the  beginning.  Without  quoting 
at  length  from  the  Soviet  constitution  on  this  point, 
we  can  with  equal  effect  and  more  brevity  cite  the  fol- 
lowing from  a  resolution  of  the  Eighth  Communist 
Congress,  held  March  18-23,  1919: 

The  Russian  Communist  Party,  developing  the  con- 
crete aims  of  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  with 
reference  to  Russia,  the  chief  characteristic  of  which 
is  that  the  majority  of  the  population  consists  of  petty 
bourgeoisie,  defines  these  aims  as  follows: 

The  urban  proletariat  .  .  .  played  the  part  of  leader 
in  the  revolution.  .  .  .  Our  Soviet  constitution  reflects 
that  in  certain  privileges  it  confers  upon  the  industrial 
proletariat  in  comparison  with  the  more  scattered 
petty-bourgeois  mass  in  the  village  [i.e.  the  bulk  of 
the  agriculturists]. 

By  the  spring  of  1920  Lenin  had  already  thrown  over 
the  democratic  idea,  together  with  all  hope  of  gaining 
the  support  of  the  peasants  within  the  next  twenty-five 
or  fifty  years,  for  he  said  at  the  Trade  Union  Congress 
in  April: 

The  peasantry  remained,  in  their  production,  as 
property  owners  and  are  creating  new  capitalistic  rela- 
tions. These  are  the  fundamental  traits  of  our  economic 


34  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

situation,  and  hence  originates  the  unwisdom  of  the 
talk  of  equality,  freedom  and  democracy,  by  those  who 
do  not  understand  the  actual  situation.  (From  Soviet 
Russia,  December  25,  1920.) 

So  all  the  fraudulent  pretenses  of  "democracy," 
even  in  the  most  strained  interpretation  of  the  word, 
have  been  abandoned.  Let  us  now  examine  the  pre- 
tense that  there  has  been  instituted  a  government  of 
"Soviets."  In  Russian  the  word  "Soviets"  means 
simply  "councils."  And  so  it  is  used,  even  in  Bol- 
shevist Russia,  in  senses  that  vary  almost  from  day 
to  day.  It  is  true  they  have  a  Soviet  constitution  but 
it  is  subject  to  unlimited  interpretation  and  adminis- 
tration by  the  Communist  Party — who  constructed  it, 
in  the  first  place,  for  their  own  purposes.  If,  however, 
we  turn  to  the  Soviet  constitution,  on  the  momentary 
supposition  that  it  means  in  practice  what  it  says  on 
paper,  we  find  it  full  of  anti-democratic  clauses.  Even 
in  the  very  friendly  report  of  the  British  Labor  Party 
it  is  pointed  out  that  clause  23  of  the  constitution 
reads : 

In  the  general  interest  of  the  working-class,  the  Rus- 
sian Soviet  Republic  deprives  individuals  and  sections 
of  the  community  of  any  privileges  which  may  be  used 
to  the  detriment  of  the  Socialist  Revolution. 

The  British  Labor  Party  report  also  points  out  that 
the  peasants  have  only  one-third  of  the  vote  per  capita 
of  the  town  electors,  that  the  system  of  voting  is  always 
open,  there  being  no  secret  ballot,  and  that  the  elections 
are  so  indirect  that  the  handful  of  Moscow  Commissars 


THE  POLITICAL  FOUNDATION  35 

are  in  complete   control,   being  only  "theoretically" 
responsible  to  the  Soviets. 

Just  as  they  have  abandoned  the  pretense  of 
democracy,  so  the  Bolshevists  have  now  given  up  the 
pretense  of  a  ' '  Soviet ' '  government,  whatever  that  may 
mean.  Let  us  note  the  following  from  the  proceedings 
of  the  Communist  Internationale,  July,  1920. 

"All  the  Russian  delegates,"  says  Comrade  Trotsky, 
"when  they  return  from  the  Congress  will  have  to 
face  a  whole  series  of  questions ;  for  example,  the  pro- 
posal of  the  Polish  Government  to  conclude  peace. 
Where  shall  we  decide  this  question?  In  the  trade 
unions?  Of  course,  not  there.  It  is  true,  we  have  a 
Soviet  of  People's  Commissaries,  but  the  Soviet  of 
People's  Commissaries  also  requires  political  control 
and  definite  political  direction.  We  shall  give  it  this 
political  direction  on  the  basis  of  the  work  of  the  party 
and  the  political  control  can  be  carried  out  only  by 
the  Communist  Party." 

In  spite  of  the  wholly  despotic  nature  of  their  rule, 
the  Bolshevists  hold  so-called  Soviet  elections  and  send 
broadcast  over  the  world  accounts  of  electoral  victories 
as  proof  of  the  fact  that  they  are  a  civilized  and  orderly 
government  with  popular  support.  It  may  be  doubted 
if  such  "elections"  have  occurred  in  any  country  for  a 
century  or  more.  An  excellent  account  of  the  latest  Bol- 
shevist electoral  victory  was  given  in  the  German  Social- 
ist Press  in  April,  1920,  by  the  foreign  delegation  of  the 
Socialist  Democratic  Labor  Party  of  Russia. 

The  brilliant  victory  at  elections  to  the  Moscow  Soviet 
as  announced  by  the  Communists  will  probably  be  able 
to  deceive  nobody  either  in  Russia  or  abroad.  After 


36  N         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

recent  events  in  Russia  the  whole  world  knows  what  is 
the  true  state  of  mind  of  the  Russian  masses  and  what 
kind  of  electoral  freedom  exists  in  the  free  Socialistic 
Soviet  Republic  of  Russia.  This  freedom  is  as  follows : 

A  complete  suppression  of  all  freedom  of  press  and 
assemblage  for  all  inhabitants  except  Communists. 

The  absolute  prohibition  of  all  other  parties  to  conduct 
any  kind  of  an  electoral  campaign. 

The  illegal  Social  Revolutionists  are  not  permitted  to 
go  to  the  polls  at  all,  so  that  this  strong  party  cannot 
possess  a  single  Soviet  delegate  (among  tens  of  thou- 
sands) in  all  Russia. 

The  Socialist  Democratic  party  is  formally  legal  but 
in  fact  illegal  since  regularly  before  each  election  there 
are  mass  arrests,  the  victims  of  which  are  only  allowed 
their  liberty  again  after  the  elections. 

Public  voting  by  the  reason  of  hands  in  the  election 
of  all  officials. 

Election  geometry  as  follows:  of  llOO  delegates  in 
Moscow,  600  were  assigned  to  the  army,  moreover  200 
were  appointed  by  the  executive  staffs  of  the  red  labor 
unions.  [We  shall  show  below  that  these  executives  were 
in  turn  generally  appointed  by  the  choice  of  the  Com- 
munist party.] 

The  above  facts  are  taken  from  the  official  declaration 
of  the  electoral  regulations. 

,.  In  Bolshevist  Russia,  then,  we  do  not  have  a  democ- 
racy or  a  Soviet  regime  but  a  so-called  "proletarian 
dictatorship."  Is  it  a  Labor  State?  Arguing  against 
Trotzky  at  a  meeting  called  to  discuss  the  trade  unions 
at  the  end  of  1920,  Lenin  said: 

If  we  in  1917  [before  the  Bolshevists  seized  power] 
wrote  about  a  Labor  State  that  was  quite  clear.  But 
at  present,  if  we  say:  ''Why  and  against  whom  is  the 
labor  class  to  be  protected,  as  there  is  no  bourgeoisie, 


THE  POLITICAL  FOUNDATION  37 

as  the  state  is  a  labor  state?"  we  must  say  "not  quite 
a  labor  state."  This  is  peculiar  inasmuch  as  many  of 
Trotsky's  mistakes  are  based  upon  this  point.  In  fact 
we  have  not  a  labor  state,  but  a  labor-peasant's  state, 
first  of  all.  Many  things  may  be  explained  on  this 
account.  Already  our  party  program  shows  that  we 
have  a  labor  state  with  burocratic  perversions.  That 
is  the  reality  of  the  transitory  period.  Can  you  tell  me 
whether  in  such  a  burocratic  state,  etc. 

Also  at  the  meeting  of  the  Congress  of  Soviets,  as 
reported  in  the  Petrograd  Pravda  of  December  23,  1920, 
Lenin  made  it  clear  that  he  was  aware  that  the  non- 
Communists — the  Communist  Party  including  only 
600,000  members — did  not  support  the  leading  policies 
of  his  government: 

Are  the  members  of  the  trades  unions  and  most  of 
the  non-partisan  elements  convinced  of  the  necessity 
of  our  new  methods,  of  our  great  tasks  of  economic 
construction?  Are  they  convinced  of  the  necessity  of 
giving  everything  for  war,  of  sacrificing  everything  for 
a  victory  on  the  military  front? 

The  answer  is  undoubtedly,  No !  They  are  not  suffi- 
ciently convinced  of  that. 

In  Russia  to-day  we  have  neither  a  democracy,  a 
Soviet  regime  nor  a  Labor  State,  but  the  dictatorship 
of  the  Communist  Party.  The  only  phrases  by  which 
the  Communists  now  insist  in  disguising  their  rule  are 
"the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat"  and  the  "Republic 
of  the  Workmen  and  Peasants."  The  fact  that  they 
continue  to  use  these  expressions  while  at  the  same 
time  they  confess  it  is  the  Communist  Party  that 
governs  indicates  the  brazen  deception  that  permeates 
their  entire  propaganda. 


88  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

The  official  confession  that  the  Communist  Party 
rules  may  be  seen  in  the  resolution  proposed  by  that 
Party  at  the  1920  Congress  of  the  Communist  Inter- 
nationale and  accepted  unanimously  by  that  body.  "We 
quote  only  a  few  of  the  most  important  expressions  from 
this  very  interesting  document.  The  meaning  is  so  clear 
that  comments  are  not  called  for. 


The  Communist  Party  is  a  part  of  the  working  class, 
precisely  its  most  advanced,  most  conscious,  and  there- 
fore most  revolutionary  part.  The  Communist  Party 
springs  into  being  through  a  natural  selection  of  the 
best,  the  most  conscious,  the  most  self-sacrificing,  and 
far-seeing  workmen.  The  Communist  Party  has  no 
interests  different  from  the  interests  of  the  working 
class.  .  .  . 

The  Communist  Party  is  that  lever  of  political 
organization  by  means  of  which  the  most  advanced 
part  of  the  working  class  directs  the  mass  of  the 
proletariat  and  semi-proletariat  along  the  right  road. 

As  long  as  the  governmental  authority  has  not  been 
conquered  by  the  proletariat,  as  long  as  the  proletariat 
has  not  established  its  rule  once  for  all  and  has  not 
guaranteed  the  working  class  from  the  possibility  of 
a  bourgeois  restoration,  so  long  will  the  Communist 
Party  by  right  have  in  its  organized  ranks  only  the 
minority  of  the  workmen.  Up  to  the  time  of  the  seizure 
of  governmental  authority  and  during  the  period  of 
transition  the  Communist  Party  may,  in  favorable  cir- 
cumstances, exercise  undivided  ideological  and  political 
influence  upon  all  the  proletarian  and  semi-proletarian 
strata  of  a  population,  but  it  can  not  bring  them  to- 
gether in  its  ranks  in  an  organized  manner.  Only  after 
the  proletarian  dictatorship  will  have  deprived  the 
bourgeois  of  such  powerful  weapons  of  effective  in- 
fluence as  the  press,  the  school,  the  parliament,  the 


39 

church,  the  administrative  apparatus,  etc.,  only  after 
the  final  defeat  of  the  bourgeois  social  order  will  have 
become  evident  for  everybody,  only  then  will  all  or 
practically  all  the  workmen  begin  to  enter  the  ranks 
of  the  Communist  Party.  .  .  . 

In  Germany  the  Eight  Independents,  whenever  they 
make  their  halfway  steps,  allege  that  they  represent  the 
desires  of  the  masses,  not  realizing  that  a  party  exists 
precisely  for  the  purpose  of  marching  in  front  of  the 
mass  and  of  showing  the  mass  the  road  it  is  to  follow. 

The  Proletarian  Revolution,  in  Russia,  has  brought 
to  the  foreground  the  basic  form  of  labor  dictatorship, 
viz.,  the  Soviet.  In  the  very  near  future  the  following 
division  will  establish  itself:  First,  the  party;  second, 
the  Soviets ;  and  third,  the  productive  unions.  But  the 
work  both  in  the  Soviets  and  in  the  revolutionized 
productive  unions  must  be  invariably  and  systematically 
directed  by  the  party  of  the  proletariat,  i.e.,  the  Com- 
munist Party.  The  organized  vanguard  of  the  labor 
class,  the  Communist  Party,  serves  equally  the  interests 
of  the  economical,  the  political,  and  the  cultural  strug- 
gle of  the  working  class  as  a  whole.  The  Communist 
Party  must  be  the  soul  of  the  productive  unions,  of 
the  Soviets  of  "Workmen's  Deputies,  and  of  all  the  other 
forms  of  proletarian  organization. 

The  appearance  of  the  Soviets  as  the  chief  form  of 
the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  furnished  by  the 
history  does  not  in  any  way  diminish  the  directing  role 
of  the  Communist  Party  in  the  Proletarian  Revolution. 

Again  the  monopoly  of  all  governmental  functions, 
and  of  nearly  all  the  most  vital  economic  functions,  by 
the  Communist  Party  was  briefly  stated  by  Lenin  on 
November  5th,  1920  (before  the  Political  Education 
Conference — quoted  by  Soviet  Russia,  April  30th, 
1921).  In  this  speech  Lenin  referred  to  that  party 
as  necessarily  controlling  "the  mighty  state  apparatus" 


40  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

and  as  ' '  determining  everything. ' '    His  most  significant 
sentences  were  the  following: 

We  must  openly  recognize  the  predominance  of  the 
Communist  Party  in  our  policy. 

The  party  may  express  the  interests  of  its  class  more 
or  less,  may  pass  through  alterations  of  one  kind  or 
another,  but  we  do  not  yet  know  of  a  better  form: 
no  other  form  has  as  yet  been  found  in  any  country. 
The  entire  juristic  and  practical  constitution  of  the 
Soviet  Republic  is  built  upon  the  fact  that  it  is  the 
party  that  is  improving  and  determining  everything, 
reconstructing  everything  according  to  a  single  prin- 
ciple, in  order  that  the  Communist  elements  in  close 
contact  with  the  proletariat  may  permeate  it  with  their 
spirit  and  liberate  it  from  the  heritage  of  capitalism, 
which  we  are  so  ardently  striving  to  overcome. 

Every  propagandist  belongs  to  the  party,  which  is 
guiding  and  directing  the  entire  state,  the  world  struggle 
of  Soviet  Russia  against  capitalism.  This  propagandist 
is  a  representative  of  the  fighting  class  and  party  that 
controls  and  necessarily  must  control  this  mighty  state 
apparatus. 

What  now  is  this  Communist  Party  which  claims  to 
represent  the  proletariat  by  divine  right,  not  only  in 
Russia  but  throughout  the  whole  world — and  by  repre- 
senting the  world  proletariat,  proposes  to  take  possession 
of  the  earth  and  all  it  contains? 

Here  are  the  official  Soviet  statistics  of  the  Party 
membership  of  some  604,000  (we  omit  a  few  unimpor- 
tant figures) : 

Government  or  town  officials.  318,000 — 53  Per  Cent. 

Officers  and  Soldiers 162,000—27    "        " 

Party  Employees  36,000—  6    "        " 

Workingmen   70,000—11    "        " 


THE  POLITICAL  FOUNDATION  41 

But  while  the  Communist  Party  represents  a  little 
more  than  one  per  cent,  of  the  adult  population  of 
Russia,  Zinoviev,  in  opening  the  congress  of  the  Soviets 
last  December  (see  Pravda,  December  29,  1920)  boast- 
fully asserted  that  the  percentage  of  Communists  in 
the  provincial  executive  commissions  was  ninety-nine! 
From  these  figures,  we  may  see  that  in  Soviet  Russia 
each  Communist  counts  for  as  much  as  ten  thousand 
non-party  members. 

Yet  the  Soviet  chiefs  continue  to  make  the  most 
preposterous  claims  on  behalf  of  the  party.  For 
example  Lenin  declared  in  his  closing  speech  at  the 
Tenth  Congress  of  the  Communist  Party  (see  Moscow 
Wireless  of  March  20,  1921)  that  "  there  is  no  other 
power  except  the  Communist  Party  that  is  capable  of 
uniting  millions  of  widely  distributed  small  farmers." 
In  view  of  the  fact  shown  in  the  above  statistics  that 
the  agriculturists  do  not  include  more  than  two  or 
three  per  cent,  of  the  membership  of  the  Communist 
Party  although  they  outnumber  that  party  by  more 
than  fifty  to  one,  we  can  get  some  notion  of  the  extreme 
degree  of  untruthfulness  which  the  Bolshevists,  by 
long  and  strenuous  practice,  have  finally  attained.  But 
all  this  flood  of  falsehood  is  proving  useless  for  Bol- 
shevist purposes,  since  the  discussion  within  the  Com- 
munist ranks  itself  is  now  disclosing  the  full  truth. 
Late  in  1920  Trotzky  complained  in  the  Pravda: 

The  people  are  now  maintaining  the  same  attitude 
toward  the  Soviet  Regeme  which  they  maintained 
against  capitalism,  as  a  force  exploiting  it  and  robbing 
it  of  its  toil.  Our  problem  is  to  regain  the  support 
of  the  workers. 


42  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

Ossinsky,  a  prominent  Communist,  sums  up  the  anti- 
democratic retrogression  of  the  Bolshevist  regime  in 
Pravda,  December  20,  1920,  as  follows: 

For  three  years  the  Soviet  Government  has  seriously 
turned  aside  from  the  principles  of  proletarian  democ- 
racy, and  from  the  spirit  of  the  Soviet  Constitution.  On 
the  one  hand,  there  have  been  created  two  legislative 
bodies,  not  provided  by  our  constitution — the  Council  of 
Defense  and  the  Military  Revolutionary  Council ;  on  the 
other,  all  constitution  organs  (legislative  as  well  as  exec- 
utive) have  virtually  disappeared. 

The  eclipse  of  the  Central  Executive  Committee  is 
generally  known.  But  even  the  Council  of  People's 
Commissars  and  the  Council  of  Defense,  which  have 
ostensibly  replaced  the  Central  Executive  Committee, 
have  been,  in  their  turn,  eclipsed  by  still  another  body. 

In  reality  the  centre  of  political  leadership  has  been 
shifted  to  the  Central  Committee  of  the  Communist 
party,  and  even  here  to  a  smaller  body,  the  "Political 
Bureau"  of  this  committee. 

Legislative  measures,  diplomatic  acts,  and  military 
plans  decided  by  this  "Politik-Bureau"  are  formally 
sanctioned  and  issued  in  the  name  either  of  the  People 's 
Commissars  or  the  Council  of  Defense.  Diplomatic 
notes  and  military  plans  do  not  need  even  such  formal 
sanction  of  any  of  the  existing  legislative  or  executive 
organs  of  the  State. 

In  describing  the  steady  reactionary  trend  toward 
the  dictatorship  of  a  smaller  and  smaller  number  of 
men,  we  cannot  stop  with  the  assertion  that  it  is  the 
Communist  Party  that  controls,  for  the  question  arises, 
who  controls  the  Communist  Party?  This  is  easily 
answered.  At  a  special  meeting  of  the  Soviet  Economic 
Conference  in  January,  1920,  Lenin  said: 


THE  POLITICAL  FOUNDATION  43 

No  matter  what  domain  of  Soviet  activity  we  turn 
to,  we  see  a  small  portion  of  the  conscious  proletariat, 
a  still  greater  number  of  the  less  conscious,  and  then 
at  the  very  foundation,  an  enormous  mass  of  peasants 
who  have  all  retained  their  individual  economic  habits 
of  free  commerce  and  speculation.  Such  are  the  con- 
ditions under  which  we  must  act  and  which  determine 
appropriate  methods  of  action.  .  .  . 

In  the  autocracy  of  the  chiefs  of  communism  and  the 
communist  domination  of  the  people  lies  the  pledge  of 
our  success. 


"What  we  really  have  in  Soviet  Russia  is  the  rule 
of  the  chiefs  of  the  Bolshevist  Party,  the  congresses 
of  that  organization  being  cut  and  dried  affairs.  "We 
must  not  forget  that  the  Commissars  in  control  of  the 
Bolshevist  Government  are  able  to  apply  their  dicta- 
torial power  over  Communist  party  members,  using  not 
only  rewards  and  punishments  for  their  purposes  but 
also  the  frightful  "Extraordinary  Commission  for  Com- 
bating Counter-Eevolution. "  Furthermore  the  Execu- 
tive of  the  Party  reserves  the  right  of  purging  it  from 
time  to  time  of  unsatisfactory  members  and  thousands 
**upon  thousands  have  been  put  out  in  this  way.  At 
the  same  time  entrance  is  made  extremely  difficult  and 
is  controlled  by  the  central  committee.  The  excuse 
for  all  this  centralization  within  the  Party  is,  of  course, 
the  necessities  of  the  revolutionary  civil  war  that  is 
still  raging  and,  as  we  show  below,  is  expected  to 
continue  to  rage  for  the  next  twenty-five  or  fifty  years. 

The  following  paragraphs  from  the  long  resolution 
of  the  Second  Congress  of  the  Communist  Internation- 
ale already  quoted  sufficiently  indicate  the  power 


44  OUT   OF  THEIR.  OWN   MOUTHS 

placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Communist  bosses  by  the 
constitution  of  their  organization: 

The  2nd  Congress  of  the  Communist  Internationale 
should  not  only  affirm  the  historic  mission  of  the  Com- 
munist Party  in  general,  but  should  indicate  to  the 
International  Proletariat,  at  least  in  its  fundamental 
features,  precisely  what  kind  of  a  Communist  Party 
we  need. 

The  Communist  Internationale  considers  that  the 
Communist  Party  should  be  built  up  on  the  basis  of 
iron  proletarian  centralism  particularly  in  the  epoch 
of  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat.  In  order  to  be 
able  to  direct  successfully  the  activities  of  the  working 
class  in  the  long  and  persistent  civil  war  which  im- 
pends, the  Communist  Party  itself  must  operate  within 
its  own  ranks  iron  military  order. 

Under  the  " military  order"  of  an  "iron  proletarian 
centralism"  any  practical  person  may  easily  grasp  the 
futility  of  such  reforms  as  are  now  proposed  for  "the 
ending  of  the  dictatorship  of  the  people's  commissars" 
and  "the  taking  over  of  actual  control  of  the  affairs 
of  state  by  the  Central  Executive  Committee  of  the 
Soviets."  (Resolution  of  the  1920  Soviet  Congress.) 
Where  is  there  any  authority  honestly  to  carry  out 
this  proposed  change  outside  of  the  Communist  Party? 
The  resolution  on  February  9,  1921,  by  which  the  Cen- 
tral Executive  Committee  ordered  the  local  Soviets  con- 
voked and  given  "full  power,"  was  also  mere  verbiage. 
As  these  local  governing  bodies  consist  to  the  extent  of 
ninety-nine  per  cent  (see  Zinoviev's  figures  above 
quoted)  of  Communists  under  the  dictatorial  power  of 
the  Soviet  Commissars  as  chiefs  of  the  Party,  what 
change  has  taken  place? 


THE  POLITICAL  FOUNDATION  45 

But  is  this  a  merely  transitional  party  dictatorship 
while  the  foreign  wars  continue  and  while  the  victory 
of  the  Communists  is  not  yet  assured?  Not  at  all.  In 
his  speech  before  the  Communist  Internationale,  as 
quoted  in  the  Moscow  Pravda,  December  3,  1920,  Zino- 
viev  declared:  "After  the  victory  the  role  of  the  party 
does  not  decline  but  on  the  contrary  increases."  We 
have  already  quoted  the  resolution  of  that  Congress 
referring  to  "the  long  and  persistent  civil  war  which 
impends."  Again  Lenin  says  in  his  "Theses,"  which 
were  adopted  by  the  Congress: 

The  conquest  of  political  power  by  the  proletariat 
does  not  bring  about  the  cessation  of  class  struggle 
against  the  bourgeoisie,  but  on  the  contrary,  makes 
this  struggle  especially  wide,  sharp,  and  pitiless. 

What  before  the  victory  of  the  proletariat  appears 
theoretically  as  merely  a  difference  of  opinion  on  the 
question  of  "democracy,"  after  the  proletarian  victory 
becomes  inevitably  a  question  to  be  decided  by  force 
of  arms. 

On  January  30,  1921,  Lenin  said  to  the  visiting 
delegation  of  Spanish  Socialists: 

We  never  speak  about  liberty.  We  practice  the 
proletariat's  dictatorship  in  the  name  of  the  minority 
because  the  peasant  class  has  not  yet  become  proletariat 
and  are  not  with  us.  It  will  continue  until  they  subject 
themselves.  Presumably  the  dictatorship  will  last  about 
forty  years. 

Similarly  Lenin  declared  to  Serrati,  the  Italian 
revolutionary  leader,  a  few  months  earlier,  that  the 


46  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

dictatorship  would  last  twenty-five  years  to  fifty 
years.  The  Second  Communist  Internationale  concludes 
its  discussion  of  the  dictatorial  role  of  the  Communist 
Party  (above  quoted)  as  follows: 

The  aim  of  a  political  party  of  the  proletariat  dis- 
appears only  with  the  complete  destruction  of  classes. 
In  the  process  of  achieving  this  final  victory  of  Com- 
munism it  is  possible  that  the  "specific  gravity  of  the 
three  fundamental  proletarian  organizations  of  our 
time,  the  party,  the  Soviet,  and  the  productive  unions, 
will  undergo  changes,  and  that  eventually  a  unified 
type  of  labor  organization  will  become  crystallized.  But 
the  Communist  Party  will  become  dissolved  completely 
in  the  working  class  at  the  time  when  Communism  will 
cease  to  be  the  aim  of  the  struggle,  and  when  the  whole 
working  class  will  becom'e  communistic. 

The  fact  that  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  is  not 
regarded  as  a  rapidly  passing  phase  was  again  brought 
out  by  Lenin  at  the  Congress  of  the  Communist  Party 
in  March,  1920 — when  the  Bolshevist  leader  said: 

We  must  base  our  activities  with  regard  to  class  rela- 
tions in  our  country  and  in  other  countries,  so  as  to 
retain  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  for  a  prolonged 
period  and  to  extricate  ourselves  if  only  gradually  from 
the  misfortunes  and  crises  which  have  come  upon  us. 

Not  only  do  the  Bolshevists  promulgate  for  all  coun- 
tries a  long  period  of  dictatorship  similar  to  what  we 
now  see  in  Russia,  but  they  believe  that  this  will  be 
a  period  of  civil  war  justifying  all  manner  of  terrorism, 
violence  and  extreme  measures.  As  the  resolution 
above  cited  frequently  says,  a  long  period  of  civil  war 


THE  POLITICAL  FOUNDATION  47 

is  before  us.  During  this  civil  war  no  other  parties 
have  a  right  to  represent  the  proletariat,  no  matter 
what  their  numerical  support,  except  the  Communist 
Party.  The  attitude  of  the  Communists  toward  other 
political  organizations  of  labor  is  shown  by  the  follow- 
ing remarks  of  Lenin: 

"We  see  in  practice  that  the  unity  of  the  proletariat 
during  a  social  revolution  may  be  achieved  only  by 
the  extreme  revolutionary  party  of  Marxism,  and  only 
by  means  of  a  ruthless  struggle  against  other  parties — 
(Lenin  at  Transport  "Workers'  Congress — Economic  Life, 
December  3,  1920). 

The  Social  Revolutionaries,  the  Menshevists  and  the 
Kerenskys?  .  .  .  Everyone  who  is  at  present  acting 
against  the  Soviet  Government  and  calls  himself  a  non- 
party  member  lies — (Lenin  at  meeting  of  Central  Ex- 
excutive  Committee,  Moscow  Wireless,  March  23, 1921). 

Not  only  are  all  other  labor  parties  and  non-party 
members  declared  to  be  non-labor  or  bourgeois,  but, 
whenever  they  assume  any  importance,  they  are  defi- 
nitely excluded  from  the  Soviets,  as  we  see  from  the 
following  decree: 

(All-Russian  Central  Executive  Committee,  June  14- 
(1),  1918.) 

Whereas,  The  presence  in  the  Soviet  organization  of 
representatives  of  parties  that  clearly  strive  to  dis- 
credit and  overthrow  the  authority  of  the_  Soviets  is 
absolutely  inadmissible : 

Therefore,  the  All-Russian  Central  Executive "  Com- 
mittee of  Soviets  resolves  to  exclude  from  its  member- 
ship representatives  of  the  parties  of  Socialist-Revolu- 
tionaries (Right  and  Center),  Russian  Social-Demo- 


48  OUT  OF^THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

cratic  Workmen's  Party  (Menshevists),  and  also  to 
propose  to  all  Soviets  of  Workmen's,  Soldiers',  Peas- 
ants' and  Cossacks'  Deputies  to  remove  the  represen- 
tatives of  these  fractions  from  their  midst. 

(Signed)  PRESIDENT  OF  ALL-RUSSIAN  CEN- 
TRAL EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE, 

Y.  SVERDLOV. 
Secretary — V.  Avanesov. 

Not  only  are  leaders  of  all  opposition  parties  ex- 
cluded from  the  Soviet  whenever  they  become  power- 
ful, but  they  are  regarded  as  traitors  and  treated 
accordingly.  The  only  opposition  tolerated  is  obliged 
to  call  itself  "non-partisan,"  and  even  the  non-partisans 
are  "suspect"  and  subject  to  sudden  punishment. 

[Lenin's  speech  above  quoted  is  only  one  of  many 
evidences  of  this  attitude.] 


IV 

THE   REIGN   OF   TERROR 

As  early  as  September,  1918,  Mr.  Wilson,  then  Presi-' 
dent,  made  an  effective  appeal  to  the  civilized  world 
against  the  crimes,  the  " barbarism,"  the  "mass  terror- 
ism" and  the  "indiscriminate  slaughter"  of  the  Bol- 
shevists. He  called  for  all  civilized  nations  to  with- 
draw their  official  representatives  from  Soviet  Russia, 
and  every  civilized  nation  without  exception  responded 
to  his  call. 

The  reign  of  terror  continues  and  in  many  respects 
has  grown  worse.  Again  and  again  the  Bolshevist 
chiefs  and  assemblies  have  re-endorsed  terrorism.  At 
the  second  congress  of  the  Communist  Internationale, 
in  the  summer  of  1920,  Lenin  declared  that  "no  dicta- 
torship of  the  proletariat  is  to  be  thought  of  without 
terror  and  violence  against  the  bitter  foes  of  the  pro- 
letariat and  the  laboring  masses."  Let  us  remember 
that  this  international  meeting  is  the  highest  Com- 
munist authority  and  the  principles  accepted  there  are 
binding  until  the  next  annual  meeting,  and  that  Lenin 
and  his  immediate  associates  reserve  to  themselves  the 
right  to  define  just  who  are  to  be  regarded  as  "the 
bitter  foes  of  the  proletariat  and  the  laboring  masses." 

Anybody  Lenin  and  Trotzky  desire  to  destroy  they 
first  label  "bourgeois,"  but  they  are  just  as  ready  to 
apply  this  term  to  laboring  men  or  their  elected  leaders 

49 


50  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

• 

or  to  laboring  agriculturists  as  they  are  to  apply  it 
to  former  employers.  On  October  5,  1920,  Trotzky 
said: 

The  bourgeoisie  must  be  torn  off,  cut  off.  The  Bed 
Terror  is  an  instrument  used  against  a  class  doomed 
to  go  under  and  which  does  not  want  to  go  under. 

An  even  stronger  expression  was  used  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Bolshevist  rule  by  Latsis,  one  of  the  chiefs 
of  the  Extraordinary  Commission,  which  is  charged 
with  putting  the  Bed  Terror  into  effect.  In  the  organ 
called  the  Bed  Terror  (November  1,  1918)  Latsis  wrote: 

We  are  no  longer  waging  war  against  separate  in- 
dividuals. We  are  exterminating  the  bourgeoisie  as  a 
class. 

Do  not  seek  in  the  dossier  of  the  accused  for  proofs 
as  to  whether  he  opposed  the  Soviet  Government  by 
word  or  deed.  The  first  question  that  should  be  put 
is  to  what  class  he  belongs,  of  what  extraction,  what 
education  and  profession.  These  questions  should 
decide  the  fate  of  the  accused.  Herein  lies  the  mean- 
ing and  the  essence  of  the  Bed  Terror. 

This  description  gives  a  good  picture  of  the  methods 
of  the  Bed  Terror,  but  the  list  of  classes  which  were 
to  be  exterminated  was  soon  extended  to  embrace  all 
anti-Bolshevists,  no  matter  whether  they  themselves 
were  wage  earners  and  no  matter  how  many  thousands 
or  ten  thousands  of  wage  earners  they  represented.  In 
a  speech  made  on  April  3,  1921,  before  the  railway 
workers  in  Moscow  Lenin  stated  that  "the  bourgeois 
class  does  not  exist  any  more  in  Russia,"  and  boasted 


THE  REIGN  OF  TERROR  51 

that  it  nad  been  " completely  destroyed"  by  the  Bol- 
shevists. We  may  point  out  that  this  is  merely  a  ter- 
rible boast,  for  it  is  well  known  that  after  slaughtering 
the  "bourgeoisie"  for  a  year  or  more  Lenin  publicly 
acknowledged  that  he  not  only  needed  the  experts  in 
this  class  but  was  ready  to  retain  them  at  very  high 
salaries.  But  in  view  of  their  previous  treatment  and 
the  treatment  of  their  relatives  and  friends  we  can  be 
assured  that  these  bourgeois,  far  from  being  good  Bol- 
shevists, maintain  their  former  views  and  are  waiting 
for  a  chance  at  revenge. 

Trotzky  has  tried  to  justify  mass  terror  (from  signed 
article  in  Izvestia  of  January  10,  1919,  under  title 
"Military  Specialists  and  the  Red  Army") : 

By  its  terror  against  saboteurs  the  proletariat  does 
not  at  all  say:  "I  shall  wipe  out  all  of  you  and  get 
along  without  specialists."  Such  a  program  would  be 
a  program  of  hopelessness  and  ruin.  While  dispersing, 
arresting  and  shooting  saboteurs  and  conspirators,  the 
proletariat  says:  "I  shall  break  your  will,  because  my 
will  is  stronger  than  yours,  and  I  shall  force  you  to 
serve  me."  .  .  .  Terror  as  the  demonstration  of  the 
will  and  strength  of  the  working  class,  is  historically 
justified,  precisely  because  the  proletariat  was  able 
thereby  to  break  the  political  will  of  the  intelligentsia, 
pacify  the  professional  men  of  various  categories  and 
work,  and  gradually  subordinate  them  to  its  own  aims 
within  the  fields  of  their  specialties. 

The  conspirators  referred  to  in  this  paragraph  are 
all  those  who  stand  for  the  right  of  the  Russian  people 
to  elect  their  own  representative  government  in  the  place 
of  the  tyranny  that  is  now  imposed  upon  them;  the 


52  OUT   OF   THEIR   OWN   MOUTHS 

"saboteurs"   are   the   professional   men   and   experts 
whose  wills  could  not  be  successfully  forced. 

In  a  letter  to  British  labor  dated  May  30, 1920,  Lenin, 
after  denouncing  the  democracy  of  the  British  Labor 
Party,  their  pacifism,  etc.,  says  of  its  leaders:  "The 
sooner  they  share  the  fate  of  Kerensky,  'the  Men- 
sheviks  and  Social  Revolutionists  in  Russia ' '  the  better. 
"What  this  fate  was  we  shall  see  below.  Lenin  then 
continues : 

Some  of  the  members  of  your  delegation  have  asked 
me  with  surprise  concerning  Red  Terror,  about  the  lack 
of  the  freedom  of  the  Press,  about  the  lack  of  freedom 
of  assembly,  about  our  persecution  of  Mensheviks  and 
Menshevik  workers,  etc.  .  .  .  Our  Red  Terror  is  a  de- 
fense of  the  working  class  against  the  exploiters;  it 
is  the  suppression  of  the  resistance  of  the  exploiters 
with  whom  the  Social  Revolutionists,  the  Mensheviks, 
and  an  insignificant  number  of  Menshevik  workers 
align  themselves.  .  .  .  The  same  "leaders"  of  workers 
who  are  conducting  a  non-communist  policy  are  99  per 
cent,  representatives  of  the  bourgeoisie,  of  its  deceit,  of 
its  prejudices. 

Here  is  a  definite  official  statement  by  the  Bolshevist 
chief  that  a  regularly  elected  labor  leader  may  be  re- 
garded as  99  per  cent,  bourgeois — and  he  is  often  so 
regarded  for  purposes  of  imprisonment  or  execution. 

The  Bolshevist  Czar  recently  issued  a  ukase  saying 
that  prisoners  belonging  to  all  active  anti-Bolshevist 
groups  would  be  held  as  all  bound  together  as  hostages 
for  the  lives  of  the  Bolshevist  chiefs — referring  back 
to  the  butchery  of  hundreds  of  such  hostages  after  the 
assassination  of  the  bloody  Uritzky  and  the  attack 


THE  REIGN  OF  TERROR  53 

on  Lenin  in  1918.    Here  are  the  words  of  the  decree 
as  carried  in  the  official  Izvestia  on  November  30,  1920 : 

Confident  of  its  impregnability,  the  Soviet  Govern- 
ment is  nevertheless  very  far  from  offering  an  oppor- 
tunity to  these  counter-revolutionists  and  agents  of  the 
Allies  for  resuming  again  the  methods  of  struggle  used 
by  them  in  1918  and  resulting  in  a  stern  lesson  in  Red 
Terror  in  retaliation. 

The  Workers'  and  Peasants'  Government  has  in  its 
hands  quite  a  sufficient  number  of  prominent  and 
responsible  counter-revolutionary  leaders  from  the 
camp  of  all  the  above-mentioned  groups,  especially 
from  among  the  Wrangel  officers.  Regarding  all  of 
them  as  bound  together  in  a  mutual  pledge  to  relentless 
struggle  against  the  authority  of  the  workers  and 
peasants,  the  Soviet  Government  declares  the  Socialists — 
Revolutionists  of  Savinkov  's  and  Chernov 's  groups,  the 
White  Guards  of  the  National  and  Tactical  Centre,  and 
Wrangel 's  officers — hostages.  In  the  event  of  an  at- 
tempt on  the  lives  of  the  leaders  of  Soviet  Russia  the 
responsible  partisans  (literally  in  the  Russian  text — 
those  who  think  likewise)  of  the  organizers  of  an 
attempt  will  be  exterminated  without  mercy. 

In  order  fully  to  realize  what  this  means  let  us  quote 
from  the  appeal  to  the  Socialists  of  the  world  by  Mar- 
toff,  leader  of  the  Russian  Social  Democratic  Labor 
Party — an  appeal  that  has  been  endorsed  by  the  well- 
known  syndicalist  Merrheim,  head  of  the  French  Metal 
Workers  and  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Confederation 
Generate  du  Travail.  Referring  to  the  above  ukase, 
Martoff,  who  is  well  and  favorably  known  by  the  entire 
labor  movement  of  Europe,  writes: 

Let  all  who  would  take  this  warning  lightly  remem- 
ber the  fatal  experiment  which  has  already  been  made 


64  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

in  Soviet  Kussia.  In  September,  1918,  after  the  murder 
of  Uritzky,  Chief  of  the  Petrograd  police,  and  the  at- 
tempt to  shoot  Lenin,  the  Soviet  Government  declared 
all  the  anti-Bolsheviks  to  be  hostages  in  the  event  of 
further  assassinations,  and  at  the  same  time,  as  a 
reprisal  for  the  acts  of  terrorism  already  committed, 
ordered  a  number  of  these  "hostages"  in  several  towns 
to  be  shot. 

It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  number  of  men  and 
women  killed  at  that  time.  The  general  public  com- 
motion forced  the  Government  to  conceal  the  true  ex- 
tent of  the  hideous  massacre  after  the  publication  of 
the  first  lists  of  victims.  But  from  these  lists  it  is 
known  that  in  Petrograd  512  people  were  shot,  152 
in  Penza,  41  in  Nijni-Novgorod,  30  in  Smolensk,  29  in 
Moscow,  6  in  Mojaisk,  4  in  Morshansk,  7  in  Nijni- 
Lvoff,  and  7  in  Schemlara.  The  last  echo  of  this  mad- 
ness was  the  proclamation  of  the  Petrozavodsk  (in 
Northern  Russia)  Extraordinary  Commission  that  it 
shot  14  bourgeois  hostages  as  a  revenge  for  the  murder 
of  Rosa  Luxemburg  and  Karl  LiebknechU 

Just  after  the  above-mentioned  attempts  on  the  lives 
of  Lenin  and  other  Bolsheviks,  the  Social-Revolutionary 
party  stated  officially  that  it  had  nothing  to  do  with 
these  assassinations ;  but  this  statement  did  not  prevent 
the  Bolsheviks  shooting  down  like  dogs  members  of 
the  Social-Revolutionary  party.  The  terrorist  madness 
of  the  Bolsheviks,  once  let  loose,  ignored  the  difference 
between  the  different  sections  of  their  political  opponents. 
In  Petrograd  they  shot  the  metal  worker  Krakovsky, 
a  member  of  the  Social-Democratic  Labor  Party ;  three 
members  of  the  same  party  in  Ribinsk,  leaders  of  local 
trade  unions  (Ramin,  Sokoloff  and  Levin) ;  and  in 
Nijni-Novgorod  the  secretary  of  the  local  party  com- 
mittee, Comrade  Ridnik. 

The  great  majority  of  the  victims  belonged  to  the 
bourgeois  class,  and  were  not  mixed  up  with  politics; 
they  were  arrested,  not  because  of  some  crime  com- 


THE  REIGN  OF  TERROR  55 

mitted,  but  as  ' '  suspicious  persons ' '  whom  it  was  neces- 
sary to  isolate.  Men  and  women,  boys  and  aged  people 
— all  were  shot  because  two  men,  political  fanatics,  had 
plotted  the  murder  of  two  leaders  of  the  Communist 
party. 

The  official  execution  and  wholesale  butchery  of  hos- 
tages referred  to  by  Martoff  is  boastfully  avowed  in 
the  official  Soviet  pamphlet  by  which  the  Bolshevists 
have  sought  to  sum  up  and  popularize  the  Red  Terror 
and  the  Extraordinary  Commission.  This  pamphlet, 
written  by  Latsis,  is  printed  by  the  Soviet  Printing 
Office  in  Moscow,  1920.  As  to  the  1918  butchery,  Lat- 
sis in  Chapter  5  of  the  pamphlet  declares: 

But  the  murderess,  the  hysterical  Kaplan,  missed  her 
aim.  The  Extraordinary  Commission  exacted  costly 
retribution  for  these  murders.  In  Petrograd  alone  as 
many  as  500  persons  were  shot  as  an  answer  to  the  shots 
fired  at  Comrades  Lenin  and  Uritzky. 

Those  who  dreamed  of  killing  the  revolution  by 
murdering  the  leaders  severely  wounded  themselves, 
and  the  damages  inflicted  by  the  proletariat  were  a 
whole  year  in  healing. 

The  Bolshevist  remedy  for  insufficient  productivity 
on  the  part  of  labor,  known  as  sabotage,  is  thus  sum- 
marized in  Chapter  3  of  this  illuminating  document : 

Those  who  were  practicing  sabotage  were  (either) 
shot  to  death  or  imprisoned  by  us,  but  nevertheless  up 
to  this  time  they  have  eluded  us  in  large  numbers  and 
destroyed  our  apparatus  and  transports.  Such  work 
is  nothing  else  than  the  same  counter-revolution.  It 
was  so  regarded  by  the  Extraordinary  Commission, 


56  OUT   OF   THEIR   OWN   MOUTHS 

and  those  guilty  of  sabotage  were  punished  without 
mercy.  The  Extraordinary  Commission  threw  its  best 
forces  into  the  fight  against  this  manifestation,  and 
is  now  working  in  various  institutions.  There  is  but 
one  way  to  get  rid  of  this  pestilence — burn  it  out  with 
a  hot  iron.  And  that  is  what  the  Extraordinary  Com- 
mission is  doing. 

We  now  come  to  another  class  of  crime  punished 
by  execution  without  trial  or  any  other  process  of  law, 
viz.,  the  crime  of  affiliation  with  the  socialist  and  labor 
parties  which  think  they  have  a  right  to  a  voice  in 
the  government  in  proportion  to  their  numerical  sup- 
port. This  is  not  the  Bolshevist  view.  And  the  punish- 
ment for  the  effort  to  institute  either  a  democratic  or 
a  non-Bolshevist  socialist  government  of  any  character 
is  likely  to  be  death.  We  quote  the  following  from 
Chapter  4  of  the  above  mentioned  official  pamphlet: 

But  there  is  still  another  kind  of  counter-revolu- 
tionists— those  who  are  such  because  they  do  not  think. 
These  are  people  who  not  seldom  desire  the  triumph 
of  the  working  class,  but  do  not  understand  how  this 
is  to  be  accomplished.  This  is  the  whole  Socialist  Party, 
entering  into  agreement  with  the  enemies  of  the  work- 
ing class,  the  bourgeoisie.  There  are  several  such 
parties  among  us;  Social-Revolutionists  of  the  Right, 
Social-Revolutionists  of  the  Left,  and  the  Mensheviks. 

They  do  not  believe  in  the  strength  of  the  working 
class  and  therefore  desire  to  trade  with  their  class 
enemy,  the  bourgeoisie.  They  forget  that  civil  war  is  a 
war  not  for  life  but  to  the  death;  a  war  in  which  prisoners 
are  not  taken  and  no  compromises  made,  but  opponents 
are  killed.  As  there  can  be  no  amity  between  wolves 
and  lambs,  so  there  can  be  no  conciliation  between  the 
bourgeoisie  and  the  workmen.  You  may  beat  the  wolf 


THE  REIGN  OF  TERROR  57 

as  you  will  but  he  will  still  remain  savage;  so  the 
bourgeoisie  does  not  change  his  nature. 

We  must  recall  in  this  connection  that  the  civil  war 
is  looked  upon  by  the  Bolshevists  as  likely  to  last  a 
generation  or  more  and  that  all  non-Bolshevist  work- 
ing men  are  labelled  "bourgeois." 

Without  counting  irregular  executions,  assassina- 
tions, massacres  and  military  killings  of  many  different 
kinds,  the  Extraordinary  Commission,  in  the  pamphlet 
quoted,  confesses  that  it  executed  2,024  persons  for  the 
sole  fact  of  belonging  to  an  anti-Bolshevist  organization 
— such  organizations,  as  we  have  said,  being  always 
labelled  for  Bolshevist  purposes  as  counter-revolution- 
ary or  bourgeoisie.  This  does  not  include  3,082  persons 
executed  for  insurrection  and  455  for  inciting  insurrec- 
tion. The  immense  scope  of  the  Extraordinary  Com- 
mission and  the  use  of  the  death  penalty  for  offenses 
for  which  it  has  not  been  used  in  civilized  countries 
for  centuries,  is  shown  in  Chapter  2  of  the  pamphlet 
quoted: 

The  sphere  of  the  labors  of  the  Extraordinary  Com- 
mission was  determined  by  the  activities  of  the  counter- 
revolutionary elements;  but,  as  there  was  no  domain 
of  life  into  which  the  counter-revolutionists  had  not 
intruded  themselves,  and  where  their  destructive  work 
was  not  manifested,  the  Extraordinary  Commission 
often  had  to  enter  quite  positively  into  all  phases  of 
life:  stores,  transportation,  Red  army,  navy,  militia, 
schools,  consulates,  industry,  assessments,  etc. 

But  the  Extraordinary  Commission  had  to  interest 
itself  not  only  in  direct  counter-revolutionary  work. 
There  are  acts  committed  by  no  means  intended  cer- 


58  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

tainly  to  injure  the  Soviet  authority,  but  simply  for 
personal  advantage  without  considering  the  conse- 
quences. Such  are  speculation,  crimes  in  office  (in 
part),  banditry,  and  desertion. 

But  as  such  acts  do  no  less  harm  to  the  Soviet 
authority  than  the  open  counter-revolutionary  manifes- 
tations, they  were  followed  up  in  the  same  manner 
as  the  rest. 

For  the  sake  of  convenience  in  assimilating  and 
mastering  all  the  (details  of  the)  immense  work  per- 
formed by  the  All-Russian  Extraordinary  Commission, 
we  present  it  to  the  reader  in  the  same  category  which 
in  the  main  was  pursued  in  the  course  of  the  work 
itself,  and  in  the  same  order  in  which  it  developed, 
namely : 

1.  Sabotage. 

2.  Counter-revolution. 

3.  Speculation. 

4.  Crimes  in  office. 

5.  Banditry. 

6.  Uprisings  of  the  rich  peasants  (land-grabbers-). 

7.  Desertion. 

The  use  of  the  expression  "rich  peasant"  needs  com- 
ment. The  peasant  who  is  resisting  the  Bolshevists  is 
called  by  them  for  the  purposes  of  execution  "rich." 
It  is  needless  to  say  that  there  are  no  ricfc  or  well-to-'do 
peasants  in  Russia  after  all  the  economic  degeneration 
of  the  past  ten  years,  and  especially  in  view  of  four 
years  of  Bolshevist  persecution  and  attack  on  all 
peasants  who  were  well  enough  off  to  muster  up  any 
effective  resistance. 

The  attitude  to  the  peasantry  is  indicated  in  other 
Bolshevist  documents  as,  for  instance,  the  following 


THE  REIGN  OF  TERROR  59' 

passage  from  an  order  directed  against  the  Cossacks — a 
name  applied  to  the  agriculturists  of  a  certain  section : 

To  institute  a  mass  terror  against  the  well-to-do 
Cossacks  and  peasants,  exterminating  them  wholesale, 
and  to  institute  a  ruthless  mass  terror  against  those 
Cossacks  in  general  who  have  any  direct  or  indirect 
part  in  the  struggle  against  the  Soviet  power. 

The  Central  Committee  of  the  Russian  Com- 
munist Party. 

Chief  of  the  Chancellery  of  the  Political  Sec- 
tion of  the  Southern  Front. 

(Signed)   Cherniak, 

Secretary  of  the  Political  Section  of  the  8th 
Army. 

Steklov,  in  the  Moscow  Izvestia,  declares  that  civil 
war  will  continue  until  the  Social  Revolutionaries  and 
the  "koulaks"  (the  better-off  agriculturists)  who  are 
hampering  the  work  of  construction,  particularly  that 
of  revictualling,  are  completely  exterminated. 

Here  is  another  example.  The  peasants  have  in  many 
places  organized  armies  for  self-defense  which  cannot 
by  any  stretch  of  the  imagination  be  called  Whites. 
These  so-called  ''Green  Armies"  are  defending  the  vil- 
lages from  the  foraging  and  punishment  expeditions 
of  the  Red  armies.  This  is  how  a  recent  decree  of  the 
Extraordinary  Commission  in  Southern  Russia  pro- 
poses to  deal  with  them: 

The  majority  of  the  Greens  who  are  now  in  the  moun- 
tains have  their  relatives  in  the  villages.  These  have  all 
been  registered,  and  in  case  of  an  attack  by  these  bands 
all  adult  relatives  of  those  who  are  fighting  against 


60  OUT  k  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

us  will  be  shot,  while  their  minor  relatives  will  be 
deported  to  Central  Russia. 

In  the  event  of  a  mass  rising  of  any  village,  stanitza 
or  city,  we  shall  apply  mass  terror  against  these  locali- 
ties ;  for  every  Soviet  representative  that  will  be  killed 
hundreds  of  inhabitants  of  these  villages  and  stanitzas 
will  have  to  suffer. 

The  Bolshevist  remedy  for  any  and  all  opponents  is 
to  find  some  opprobrious  epithet  to  apply  to  them,  in- 
dicating treason  to  Bolshevism,  and  then  to  crush  them 
with  the  Red  Terror.  This  method  is  evidently  to  be 
used  even  against  the  valiant  Red  Army.  The  peasants 
who  constituted  ninety  per  cent,  of  the  Army  are  being 
demobilized.  The  remainder,  said  to  be  some  hundred 
thousand  men,  are  either  mercenary  foreigners,  Chinese, 
Hungarian,  Letts,  etc.,  under  the  name  of  the  "inter- 
national" army,  or  communist  fanatics.  The  first  step 
towards  the  persecution  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
Red  Army  was  to  deprive  them  of  all  rights.  Leon 
Trotzky  in  his  Order  of  the  Revolutionary  Military 
Council,  No.  296,  dated  November  10,  1920,  declared: 

The  country  is  in  danger.  The  false  notion  that  the 
army  has  any  civic  rights  threatens  the  existence  of 
the  free  Russian  people  and  the  Revolution. 

It  may  be  recalled  that  the  Bolshevists  came  into 
power  by  standing  for  the  rights  of  soldiers  even  to 
the  point  of  the  right  to  elect  their  own  officers.  But 
now,  having  deprived  the  peasant  soldiers  of  all  rights, 
Lenin  is  apparently  upon  the  point  of  turning  the  Red 
Terror  against  them.  To  a  meeting  of  the  railway 


THE  REIGN  OF  TERROR  61 

workers  in  Moscow,  reported  in  the  Bolshevist  Wireless 
of  April  3  (1921)  he  said: 

The  soldiers  do  not  wish  to  go  back  to  cultivate  their 
land  and  become  peaceful  workers.  The  demobilized 
soldiers  are  our  greatest  enemies.  They  have  been 
accustomed  to  rob  and  pillage  and  murder.  They  have 
been  accustomed  to  satisfy  only  their  own  needs  and 
desires. 

It  is  evident  that  a  despot  who  feels  he  has  the  power 
to  wage  war  against  the  personnel  of  his  own  army 
is  liable  to  proceed  against  any  other  element  of  his 
subjects. 

The  use  of  the  Extraordinary  Commission  and  of 
terroristic  methods  against  labor  is  shown  in  the  fol- 
lowing passages  from  the  report  drawn  up  on  February 
1  by  the  Russian  Social  Democratic  Labor  Party: 

In  Mohilev  the  entire  membership  of  both  the  Rus- 
sion  Social-Democratic  Labor  Party  and  the  Bund  were 
arrested  during  the  night  of  the  1st  of  November.  The 
Extraordinary  Commission  gave  the  following  motives 
for  the  arrest:  "guilty  of  pernicious  criticism  of  the 
Soviet  power  and  its  activities,  thereby  affecting  very 
badly  various  measures  taken  by  said  power,  and,  since 
it  occurred  in  the  war  zone  it  affects  detrimentally 
the  gallant  Red  Army."  Among  those  sentenced  (to 
forced  labor  in  various  concentration  camps  until  the 
end  of  the  civil  war)  were.  .  .  . 

Towards  the  close  of  the  year  the  " verdict"  (ad- 
ministrative order  without  trial)  was  handed  down. 
Astrov,  Korobkov,  Grossmann,  Babin,  Tkatchenko, 
Kuchin-Oransky  and  others  were  sentenced  "for  be- 
longing to  the  right  wing  of  the  Russian  Social-Demo- 
cratic Labor  Party"  to  confinement  in  a  concentration 
camp  throughout  the  duration  of  the  civil  war. 


62          OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

In  Yekaterinburg  our  attempt  to  take  part  in  the 
election  campaign  for  the  Soviet  was  punished  by  the 
arrest  of  the  local  Committee  of  our  Party  (comrades 
Kliatchko,  Ossovsky  and  others),  together  with  the 
member  of  the  Central  Committee,  D.  Dalin  and  6 
workers  of  the  Verkhne-Issetski  Factory.  At  the  home 
of  N.  N.  Sukhanov  a  domiciliary  search  was  made.  A 
month  later  the  prisoners  were  freed  by  a  direct  order 
from  Moscow,  as  the  purpose  of  the  arrests  had  been 
accomplished,  the  elections  to  the  Soviet  having  been 
most  "successful"  for  the  Bolsheviki. 

In  Tula  the  outrageous  behavior  of  the  factory  Com- 
missary caused  an  outburst  among  the  workmen  of  the 
Arms  Factory,  which  spread  to  all  other  establishments 
in  that  city.  The  protest  took  at  first  the  form  of  a 
strike,  but  following  the  arrest  of  strikers  it  assumed 
the  form  of  so-called  "  self  -imprisonment,"  i.e.,  the 
workmen  and  their  wives  compelled  the  Bolsheviki  to 
arrest  them,  thus  expressing  their  solidarity  with  the 
prisoners.  In  this  way  several  thousand  workers  were 
arrested  in  those  days.  The  reprisals  were  severe, 
wholesale  deportations  to  the  front  were  resorted  to 
and,  as  a  climax,  12  of  the  strikers  were  turned  over 
to  a  field  court  martial  and  sentenced  to  hard  labor 
for  life.  And  in  reply  to  the  attempt  made  by  the 
Social-Democratic  group  of  the  local  Soviet  to  have 
the  trouble  settled  peaceably,  the  group  was  arrested 
during  its  session. 


The  Social  Democratic  Party  (Menshevists)  have 
also  brought  before  the  labor  world  a  full  report  of 
the  persecution  of  the  Russian  printers  and  of  other 
Soviet  atrocities  against  labor. 

This  party  finally  made  a  strong  appeal  to  British 
Labor — prompted  by  the  fact  that  the  British  Labor 
delegation  to  Russia  had  issued  a  report  that  was  in 


THE  REIGN  OF  TERROR  63 

part  mildly  critical  or  ambiguous,  but,  on  the  whole, 
was  distinctly  friendly  to  the  Bolshevist  regime.  In- 
dividual members  of  the  delegation — practically  half 
of  it,  including  Tom  Shaw,  Ben  Turner,  Mrs.  Philip 
Snowden,  Dr.  Haden  Guest,  as  well  as  Bertrand  Rus- 
sell, who  accompanied  the  delegation  had  issued  the 
strongest  adverse  statements.  But  the  report,  as  a 
whole,  was  friendly,  doubtless  owing  to  domestic 
politics  and  to  diplomatic  motives  which  do  not  appear. 
This  was  all  the  more  shocking  to  the  Russian  Socialists 
and  Trade  Unionists  since  all  other  foreign  labor 
delegations — Germans,  Italians,  Swedish  and  Spanish, 
had  had  the  courage  of  their  convictions.  (See  Chapter 
XII.)  The  Social  Democratic  appeal  is  therefore 
doubly  important,  serving  not  only  as  a  picture  of 
Russian  labor  persecution  but  as  an  indictment  of  the 
inexcusable  failure  of  the  British  delegation  even  to 
touch  on  these  vital  matters  in  its  one-sided  report — 
from  which  was  excluded  also  the  valuable  individual 
testimony  of  Mrs.  Snowden  and  other  delegates,  while 
the  pro-Bolshevist  material  of  the  extremists,  Robert 
Williams,  Purcell,  and  Margaret  Bondfield,  was  repro- 
duced. 

The  Social  Democratic  appeal  secured  the  following 
endorsement  from  Merrheim,  Secretary  of  the  largest 
French  labor  union,  the  Metal  Workers,  a  leader  of 
the  French  Confederation  of  Labor,  and  an  ultra- 
pacifist  and  syndicalist  himself: 

Such  are  the  facts.  .  .  .  There  should  arise  the 
vehement  and  indignant  protest  of  all  trade  union  mem- 
bers and  socialists  (throughout  the  world)  who  still 
have  a  sense  of  dignity  and  independence. 


64  OUT  OF   THEIR   OWN   MOUTHS 

The  principal  paragraphs  of  this  appeal  are  as  fol- 
lows: 

To  the  British  Workmen  and  to  the  Members  of  the 
Labor  Delegates  to  Russia 

DEAR  COMRADES: 

We,  the  undersigned,  Russian  socialists,  have  received 
from  Russia  the  information  stating  that  the  visit  of 
the  British  labour  delegation  to  Russia  last  summer  has 
resulted  in  severe  reprisals  and  persecutions  for  all  the 
socialists  who  were  bold  enough  to  criticize  openly  the 
soviet  regime  and  the  actions  of  the  Russian  communist 
party. 

Well-known  leaders  of  the  labour  movement  in  Russia, 
who  for  many  years  fought  against  Tsarism,  who  spent 
long  and  weary  years  in  prison  and  in  exile,  and  who 
hold  prominent  positions  in  the  Russian  trade  union 
movement,  have  once  more  been  severely  sentenced, 
imprisoned  and  exiled  by  the  soviet  government. 

We  wish  to  repeat  here  a  few  facts  mentioned  in  the 
above  circulars: 

1.  Comrade  F.  Dan,  a  member  of  the  central  com- 
mittee of  the  Russian  socialist-democratic  labour  party, 
and  one  of  the  oldest  members  of  the  party,  has  been 
exiled  from  Moscow  to  Perm. 

2.  Two  members   of  the   central  committee   of  the 
socialist-democratic    party     (Mensheviki),     Comrades 
Dalin  and  Troyanovsky,  are  in  prison  in  Moscow. 

3.  All  the  members  of  the  executive  committee  of  the 
Moscow  printers'  union,  headed  by   Comrade  Deviat- 
kin,  have  been  arrested;  the  printers'  union  is  dis- 
persed; workmen  who  came  out  on  strike  to  express 
their  protest  against  such  actions  of  the  soviet  govern- 
ment have  been  searched  and  prosecuted. 

4.  Victor  Chernov,  a  member  of  the  central  commit- 
tee of  the  socialist-revolutionary  party,  spoke  at  the 


THE  REIGN  OF  TERROR  65 

printers'  meeting  in  Moscow  in  the  presence  of  several 
members  of  the  British  labour  delegates;  he  was,  how- 
ever obliged  to  hide  after  this  speech,  as  it  has  made 
the  Extraordinary  Commission  (Cheka)  very  angry, 
and  they  wanted  to  arrest  him.  They  could  not  find 
him,  and  arrested  instead  his  wife  and  daughters,  aged 
10  and  17  years. 

5.  Comrade  Abramovich,  member  of  the  central  com- 
mittee of  the  socialist-democratic  party,  welcomed  the 
British  labour  delegation  at  a  meeting  of  the  Moscow 
Soviet.  In  his  speech  he  pointed  out  the  actual  con- 
dition of  the  Russian  labour  classes  under  the  bolshevik 
yoke,  and  was  in  consequence,  through  intrigues  and 
pressure  from  the  Russian  communist  party,  expelled 
from  the  soviet. 

We  are  in  possession  of  many  other  similar  facts, 
but  it  would  take  too  long  to  state  them  all  here.  We 
think  that  the  above  facts  are  quite  sufficient  proof 
that  there  is  no  freedom  in  soviet  Russia,  and  that  even 
the  socialist  parties  can  not  propagate  their  ideas 
legally  and  unrestrictedly. 

We  feel  we  must  put  the  following  questions  to  the 
British  workmen  and  to  you,  members  of  the  British 
labour  delegation.  Do  you  know  these  facts?  If  you 
do,  what  do  you  intend  to  do  in  order  to  alleviate  the 
sufferings  of  these  Russian  socialists  who  were  ~bold 
enough  to  tell  you  the  entire  truth  about  Russia?  Don't 
you  consider  that  you  are  also  responsible  for  their  mis- 
fortunes and  sufferings? 

We,  the  adherents  of  the  socialists  who  are  being  so 
severely  persecuted  by  the  Russian  communist  party 
ruling  in  Russia  under  the  disguise  of  the  soviet  gov- 
ernment, think  you  can  not  and  must  not  be  indifferent 
to  the  actual  results  of  your  policy. 

We  are  deeply  convinced  that  in  protesting  against 
the  blockade  and  intervention  the  British  proletariat  was 
prompted  by  noble  motives — the  British  workmen  meant 
to  support  the  cause  of  the  Russian  democracy,  the  cause 


66  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

of  the  great  Russian  revolution.  If  they  did  mean  so, 
they  must  understand  that  the  struggle  against  the 
world's  reactionaries  must  go  hand  in  hand  with  the 
struggle  for  the  principles  of  the  Russian  democracy. 

You  denounce  the  blockade,  the  intervention  and  the 
counter-revolution.  But  you  must  also  denounce  the 
slavery  that  has  been  introduced  into  Russia  by  the  Rus- 
sian communist  party.  Only  then  will  the  Russian  work- 
ing classes  consider  you  their  real  friends.  .  .  . 

You  have  interfered  in  Russian  domestic  affairs  by 
your  struggle  against  the  blockade,  against  support  of 
the  counter-revolution,  and  for  the  recognition  of  the 
soviet  government.  Your  intervention  was  and  is  one- 
sided. You  supported  the  soviet  government,  but  you 
did  not  support  the  Russian  proletariat  and  peasantry 
who  fought  against  the  despotism  of  the  soviet  govern- 
ment during  all  these  terrible  years.  .  .  . 

Some  thirty  days  after  this  original  appeal  was  issued 
the  Social  Democratic  Party  followed  it  up  with  a  second 
appeal  showing  that  the  persecutions,  instead  of  becom- 
ing milder,  had  become  worse,  especially  under  the  Soviet 
Government  set  up  by  Moscow  in  the  Ukraine  under  the 
leadership  of  Lenin's  right  bower,  Rakovsky.  This 
Ukraine  persecution  seems  to  have  been  aimed  mainly 
and  almost  exclusively  at  the  labor  unions.  The  Social- 
Democratic  Labor  Party  portrays  it  in  the  following 
convincing  paragraphs: 

With  the  object  of  the  suppression  of  the  social-demo- 
cratic labor  party,  the  bolsheviks  have  invented  a  new 
weapon,  which  was  used  for  the  first  time  by  H.  T. 
Rakovsky.  The  so-called  Ukrainian  government  ordered 
the  exile  to  the  Georgian  borders,  without  any  trial,  of 
seventeen  of  the  most  energetic  leaders  of  the  Russian 
social-democratic  labor  party  in  the  Ukraine.  Amongst 


THE  REIGN  OF  TERROR  67 

them,  are  the  members  of  the  central  Ukrainian  com- 
mittees of  the  social-democratic  party — comrades  I.  Bar 
(former  editor  of  the  internationalist  journal,  "Golos," 
in  Paris  during  the  war) ,  Zorohovitch,  Shtern,  A.  Roubt- 
zoff  (a  well-known  leader  of  the  trade  union  movement 
amongst  the  metal  workers),  Schoulpin  (leader  of  the 
Miners'  trade  union),  and  a  member  of  the  Kharkoff 
party  committee,  Boris  Malkin.  Ten  other  comrades 
were  sentenced  at  the  same  time,  also  without  any  trial, 
to  forced  labor  in  the  concentration  camps,  until  "the 
end  of  the  civil  war"  (i.e.,  indefinitely).  Among  them 
are  the  well-known  social-democratic  leader  and  trade 
unionist,  Astroff,  the  trade  unionist,  Korobkoff  from 
Odessa,  members  of  the  Kieff  party  committee,  Tchijev- 
sky  and  Kouchin-Oransky  (the  latter,  a  well-known 
socialist  author,  had  voluntarily  joined  the  ranks  of  the 
"Red"  army  as  an  officer  at  the  beginning  of  the  Polish 
war),  and  the  distinguished  leaders  of  the  Kharkoff  shop 
assistants'  union  of  Babin  and  Grossman. 

Most  of  the  above  mentioned  comrades  were  arrested 
in  Kharkoff  on  August  19,  during  the  provincial  con- 
ference of  the  Russian  social-democratic  labor  party. 

Several  social-democrats,  leaders  of  the  trade  union 
movement  in  Kremenchug,  were  also  exiled  to  Georgia. 
The  boards  elected  by  the  Kremenchug  trade  unions  have 
been  dissolved  and  replaced  by  persons  appointed  by 
local  organizations  of  the  communist  party. 

By  such  measures  H.  T.  Rakovsky,  who  plays  the 
hideous  part  of  a  menshevist  renegade,  hopes  to  destroy 
the  influence  of  the  well-organized  social-democrats  upon 
the  Ukrainian  working  classes. 

The  fate  of  the  other  popular  party  (the  Social-Revolu- 
tionists) has  been  even  more  horrible — for  they  composed 
the  majority  of  the  constitutional  assembly  which  the 
Bolshevists  dispersed  by  bayonets  and  are  the  sole  party 
which  can  make  any  legitimate  claim  to  represent  the 


68          "OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

masses  of  the  Russian  peasants.  The  Social  Revolution- 
ary Party  has  also  addressed  to  world  labor  a  vigorous 
protest  outlining  the  refinement  of  physical  and  moral 
tortures  introduced  under  Lenin  through  that  revival  of 
the  Spanish  inquisition,  the  Extraordinary  Commission 
for  Fighting  the  Counter  Revolution,  presided  over  by 
the  world  famed  inquisitor  and  butcher,  Djerzinsky. 

The  social  revolutionists  state  that  the  wife  of  one 
of  the  prisoners,  A.  T.  Kuznetzov,  was  flogged  by  the 
Bolshevist  authorities  for  refusing  to  divulge  her  hus- 
band's whereabouts;  that  not  only  were  the  wife  and 
daughters  of  Chernoff,  Likhatch  and  the  other  leading 
social  revolutionary  prisoners  arrested  but  that  in  some 
cases,  their  distant  relatives  were  held  as  hostages ;  that 
the  inquisition  proposes  to  the  wives  of  prisoners  to  enter 
into  its  services  as  spies,  promising  to  free  their  hus- 
bands in  return. 

Here  are  the  conditions  of  Russia's  "political  prison- 
ers" and  "conscientious  objectors"  as  defined  by  the 
executive  committee  of  Russia's  largest  political  organ- 
ization. The  protest  is  addressed  in  the  first  instance 
to  the  Soviet  authorities: 

The  refined  cruelty  of  the  ail-Russian  and  provincial 
Extraordinary  Commissions  has  reached  such  a  stage 
as  to  drive  insane  some  of  the  arrested  socialists- 
revolutionists  who  can  not  endure  the  regime  of 
confinement  in  the  city  of  Yaroslav,  in  the  so-called 
"soviet  house  of  detention,"  over  the  entrance  of 
which  there  is  flaunting  a  sign  reading:  "Rus- 
sian Socialist  Federal  Soviet  Republic"  and  above 
which  sign  there  is  the  old  Tzarist  inscription:  "Yaro- 
slav Central  Hard  Labor  Prison."  There  are  many 
tried  and  true  champions  of  the  workers'  cause  among 


THE  REIGN  OF  TERROR  69 

these  persons  to  whom  the  March  Revolution  at  last 
opened  the  doors  of  their  prisons,  only  to  find  the  bars, 
after  a  brief  period  of  liberty,  again  closed  on  them, 
this  time,  however,  by  your  hands. 

The  prison  regime  to  which  our  comrades  have  been 
subjected  in  the  Yaroslav  soviet  house  of  detention  has 
outdone  the  regime  of  the  Tzarist  central  prison,  and 
even  during  the  walks  of  the  prisoners  for  their  airings 
they  have  been  forbidden  on  pain  of  the  severest  penal- 
ties to  exchange  ordinary  greetings  with  each  other. 
Confined  to  damp,  cold  solitary  cells,  left  for  a  long  time 
already  without  necessary  repairs,  with  broken-down 
heating,  water  and  drainage  systems,  the  prisoners  have 
been  deprived  of  sunshine,  light  and  air,  and  compelled 
to  live  amidst  filth  and  pestilential  stench ;  and  if  some 
of  them  dared  approach  a  window  for  a  moment,  the 
prison  guards  would  open  fire  at  the  window,  acting 
in  accordance  with  instructions  given  them. 

But  if  the  outrages  and  brutalities,  the  denial  of  light 
and  air,  and  the  shooting  at  the  windows  only  repeat 
and,  perhaps,  augment  the  methods  used  by  the  Tzarist 
jailkeepers,  torture  by  hunger  is  a  new  invention  of  the 
"socialistic"  prison  regime. 

The  form  of  feeding  the  prisoners  at  Yaroslav  falls 
even  far  below  the  rations  officially  acknowledged  by 
you  as  hunger  rations.  The  prisoners  receive  one  pound 
of  raw,  half-baked  bread,  and  soup  with  some  beet  leaves 
or  herring  bones  for  dinner,  and  three  or  four  spoonfuls 
of  gruel  for  supper.  But  then,  this  gruel  is  no  longer 
given,  and  they  are  trying  to  make  the  dinner  soup  last 
for  both  dinner  and  supper.  This  is  all  the  nourishment 
there  is.  Such  is  the  regime  of  gradual  death  by  starva- 
tion established  by  you  for  your  prisoners. 

You  will  perhaps  point  to  the  critical  food  situation 
all  over  soviet  Russia,  and  you  might  say  that  the  food 
committees  are  not  in  a  position  to  allot  from  their  sup- 
plies any  more  for  the  feeding  of  socialists  languishing 
in  communist  prisons. 


70  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

But  it  is  not  for  the  food  shortage  of  soviet  Russia 
that  the  Yaroslav  hunger  torture  can  be  explained  away. 
Were  that  the  case,  the  organs  of  your  political  police 
would  not  interfere  with  the  food  assistance  that  we  are 
willing  to  render  the  prisoners  from  the  outside.  At 
the  cost  of  tremendous  efforts  and  immense  sacrifices  the 
relatives  of  the  prisoners  have  organized  food  assistance 
to  be  sent  to  the  prison.  But  permission  for  these  gifts 
has  been  hedged  in  by  the  special  section  of  your  extra- 
ordinary commission  with  all  kinds  of  conditions  which 
made  it  impossible  during  two  months  to  send  more  than 
two  relief  shipments.  An  attempt  was  made  to  supply 
the  prisoners  with  money,  so  as  to  enable  them  to  order 
some  products  permitted  in  the  open  market,  but  the 
prison  authorities  accepted  only  a  certain  amount  which 
they  deemed  proper  to  confiscate  right  there  and  then 
in  payment  of  the  damage  caused  to  the  prison  depart- 
ment ostensibly  by  the  demonstration  of  the  prisoners 
at  the  Butyrski  prison.  (Although  it  was  proved  that 
none  of  these  prisoners  had  participated  in  that  outbreak 
at  the  Moscow  prison.) 

Under  these  circumstances  all  efforts  to  fight  the 
hunger  torture  have  proved  futile. 

Now,  what  is  your  object  in  this? 

Do  not  excuse  yourself  by  claiming  ignorance.  You 
know,  you  can  not  help  knowing,  what  is  going  on,  to 
the  glory  of  your  name,  in  Yaroslav.  It  has  been  dis- 
cussed with  the  president  of  the  council  of  people's  com- 
missaries, Lenin  himself,  with  the  chairman  of  the  cen- 
tral executive  committee,  Kalinin,  and  with  many  others 
of  you. 

By  the  hands  of  your  henchmen,  in  your  communistic 
torture-chamber  of  the  Yaroslav  central  prison,  you  M^ant 
to  finish  secretly  and  unobserved  that  which  the  Tzarist 
jailers  did  not  manage  to  complete:  in  the  tortures  of 
death  by  starvation  you  want  to  kill  these  old  champions 
of  socialism  and  the  revolution! 


THE  REIGN  OF  TERROR  71 

What  is  the  cause  of  all  these  persecutions?  The 
answer  is  simple :  the  continued  strength  and  popularity 
of  the  Social-Democratic  Party  and  labor  unionists  in 
the  cities  and  of  the  Social  Revolutionary  Party  of  the 
country.  At  a  recent  conference  in  Moscow,  the  Soviets' 
leading  authority,  Rykov,  according  to  the  Krasnaya 
Gazeta,  made  the  following  declaration : 

The  workers  are  discontented  with  power,  for  they 
are  hungry  and  lack  clothing.  In  many  of  the  large 
factories  there  are  no  communists.  There  results  a 
political  weakening  of  Bolshevism,  notwithstanding  its 
strategic  successes.  It  is  not  possible  to  create  a  single 
economic  plan  when  80  per  cent  of  the  population  are 
peasants  who  will  not  allow  themselves  to  be  regulated. 

The  Social-Democrats  elected  a  majority  in  the  Soviets 
in  many  parts  of  the  country  and  recently  secured  two- 
thirds  in  certain  elections  in  Petrograd.  It  was  this  that 
led  Lenin  to  an  even  stronger  expression  than  Rykov, 
when  (early  in  this  month  of  February),  he  declared, 
in  the  Petrograd  Pravda,  that  t(the  fight  between  the 
labor  unionists  and  the  Soviets  for  supremacy  will  break 
up  the  bolshevist  state  system  unless  a  settlement  is  soon 
reached."  The  offense  of  the  labor  unionists  is  very 
clear.  They  are  fundamentally  opposed  to  the  so-called 
government  set  up  by  Lenin  and  his  handful  of  associate 
dictators.  Lenin  declares,  "they  are  out  for  material 
benefit  for  themselves  at  the  expense  of  the  general  wel- 
fare of  the  communist  state."  Lenin  is  the  sole  inter- 
preter of  the  welfare  of  this  "proletarian"  state;  the 
organized  proletariat  has  no  voice. 


SLAVERY   AND    COMPULSORY   LABOR 

WORKING  men  and  their  organizations  suffer  not  only 
from  the  lack  of  any  form  of  representative  government 
or  freedom  of  press  or  assemblage,  and  not  only  from 
the  persecutions  of  the  Extraordinary  Commission,  but 
also  from  Soviet  legislation  aimed  directly  at  Labor. 

After  a  year  of  syndicalism,  factory  Soviets  and  an- 
archy— during  which  production  was  reduced  to  less 
than  one-seventh  of  its  previous  level — the  Soviet  "Gov- 
ernment ' '  in  1919  reversed  its  industrial  policy  and  began 
to  have  recourse  to  one  form  after  another  of  labor  com- 
pulsion or  enslavement.  Compulsion  has  never,  through- 
out history,  produced  the  same  degree  of  efficiency  as 
freedom,  but  some  of  the  most  extreme  disorder  was 
cured  and  the  Bolshevists  gave  figures  to  prove  that  the 
output  of  Russian  industry  had  now  "risen,"  though 
in  a  few  cases  only,  to  as  high  as  two-thirds  of  its  pre- 
war level — a  level  which  was  very  low  indeed  in  com- 
parison to  that  of  more  advanced  countries. 

The  first  completed  plan  of  labor  compulsion  was  that 
devised  by  the  "Code  of  Labor  Laws."  Some  of  the 
principal  clauses  of  this  slave  code,  as  it  was  published 
in  the  official  organ  of  the  Soviet  "Embassy"  in  America, 
called  Soviet  Russia,  on  February  21,  1920,  were  as 
follows : 

72 


SLAVERY  AND  COMPULSORY  LABOR      73 

The  assignment  of  wage  earners  to  work  shall  be 
carried  out  through  the  Departments  of  Labor  Distribu- 
tion. 

In  case  of  urgent  public  work  the  District  Depart- 
ment of  Labor  may,  in  agreement  with  the  respective 
professional  unions  and  with  the  approval  of  the  Peo- 
ple's Commissariat  of  Labor,  order  the  transfer  of  a 
whole  group  of  wage  earners  from  the  organization  where 
they  are  employed  to  another  situated  in  the  same  or 
in  a  different  locality,  provided  a  sufficient  number  of 
volunteers  for  such  work  cannot  be  found. 

The  production  standards  of  output  adopted  by 
the  valuation  commission  must  be  approved  by  the 
proper  Department  of  Labor  jointly  with  the  Council 
of  National  Economy. 

The  Supreme  Council  of  National  Economy  jointly 
with  the  People's  Commissariat  of  Labor  may  direct 
a  general  increase  or  decrease  of  the  standards  of 
efficiency  and  output  for  all  wage  earners  and  for  all 
enterprises,  establishments  and  institutions  of  a  given 
district. 

The  Ninth  Congress  of  the  Russian  Communist  Party, 
the  real  Soviet  Government,  which  took  place  a  few 
weeks  later  (in  April,  1920),  attempted  to  give  reasons 
for  the  new  coercion  plans.  The  chief  arguments  used 
were  these: 


The  Ninth  Congress  approves  of  the  Central  Com- 
mittee of  the  Russian  Communist  Party  on  the  mobiliza- 
tion of  industrial  proletariat,  compulsory  labour  service, 
militarisation  of  production  and  the  application  of  mili- 
tary detachments  to  economic  needs. 

In  connection  with  the  above,  the  Congress  decrees 
that  the  Party  organisation  should  in  every  way  assist 
the  Trade  Unions  and  the  Labour  Sections  in  registering 


74  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

all  skilled  workers  with  a  view  of  employing  them  in 
the  various  branches  of  the  production  with  the  same 
consistency  and  strictness  as  was  done,  and  is  being 
carried  out  to  the  present  time,  with  regard  to  the  com- 
manding staff  for  army  needs.  .  .  . 

Every  social  system,  whether  based  on  slavery,  feudal- 
ism, or  capitalism,  had  its  ways  and  means  of  labour 
compulsion  and  labour  education  in  the  interests  of  the 
exploiters. 

The  Soviet  system  is  faced  with  the  task  of  developing 
its  own  methods  of  labour  compulsion  to  attain  an  increase 
of  the  intensity  and  wholesomeness  of  labour;  this 
method  is  to  be  based  on  the  socialisation  of  public 
economy  in  the  interests  of  the  whole  nation. 

In  addition  to  the  propaganda  by  which  the  people 
are  to  be  influenced  and  the  repressions  which  are  to 
be  applied  to  all  idlers,  parasites,  and  disorganisers  who 
strive  to  undermine  public  zeal — the  principal  method 
for  the  increase  of  production  will  become  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  system  of  labour.  .  .  . 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  a  considerable  part  of  the 
workers,  either  in  search  of  better  food  conditions  or 
often  for  purposes  of  speculation,  voluntarily  leave  their 
places  of  employment  or  change  from  place  to  place, 
which  inevitably  harms  production  and  deteriorates  the 
general  position  of  the  working  class,  the  Congress  con- 
siders one  of  the  most  important  problems  of  Soviet 
Government  and  of  the  Trade  Union  organisation  to  be 
established  is  the  firm,  systematic,  and  insistent  struggle 
with  labour  desertion.  The  way  to  fight  this  is  to  publish 
a  list  of  desertion  fines,  the  creation  of  a  Labour  Detach- 
ment of  Deserters  under  fine,  and,  finally,  internment 
in  concentration  camps. 

A  resolution  was  also  adopted  which  still  more  clearly 
defined  the  nature  of  the  new  enslavement  and  pointed 
out  the  "necessity"  for  using  the  same  punishments  for 


SLAVERY  AND  COMPULSORY  LABOR      75 

labor  desertion  as  those  employed  in  cases  of  military 
desertion : 

The  organisations  of  the  Party  must  assist  in  every 
way  the  Trade  Unions  and  labour  departments  in 
registering  skilled  workers  for  the  purpose  of  employing 
them  in  productive  labour  on  the  same  principles  and 
with  the  same  severity  as  are  adopted  with  regard  to 
officers  mobilized  for  the  requirements  of  the  army. 

The  officers'  families,  it  may  be  recalled,  are  held  as 
hostages  for  their  good  behavior. 

If  we  wish  to  get  a  picture  of  how  this  industrial 
mobilization  or  militarisation  works  out  in  practice  we 
can  refer  to  the  report  presented  to  the  International 
Federation  of  Trade  Unions  late  in  1920  by  represen- 
tatives of  the  Russian  Metal  Workers  Union. 

Militarisation  means  a  complete  and  absolute  subjec- 
tion of  the  workmen  to  the  work's  management.  It  em- 
bodies a  number  of  stern  measures,  also  restriction  of 
leaves  and  cruel  suppression  of  strikes. 

In  order  to  show  to  what  extent  militarisation  is  car- 
ried out  in  the  metal  industry  we  quote  below  an  extract 
from  an  article,  which  appeared  in  the  XIII  issue  of 
the  journal  "Metallist"  in  August,  1920,  and  was  con- 
tributed by  a  Communist  worker,  Khronin:  "Absolute 
submission  to  the  director  has  been  introduced  at  these 
works  (Plow  works  of  Kostroma) ;  neither  interference 
nor  contradiction  on  the  part  of  the  workmen  are 
tolerated.  The  instructions  given  by  the  works  com- 
mittee are  in  accordance  with  the  instructions  of  the 
Works'  Management.  At  our  works  absence  without 
permission  of  the  foreman  means  suspension  of  the  extra 
ration.  Refusal  to  work  overtime  also  means  suspension 
of  ration.  Whereas  an  obstinate  refusal  means  arrest. 


76  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

For  being  late  at  work  a  fine  of  two  weeks'  wages  is 
imposed. ' ' 

When  the  Bolsheviks  came  into  power  they  abolished 
overtime  work  in  all  branches  of  industry.  But  as  the 
output  was  decreasing  in  an  alarming  way  and  as  many 
skilled  workmen  went  to  the  villages  the  Soviet  Govern- 
ment, as  far  back  as  the  beginning  of  1920,  reintroduced 
overtime  work.  At  first  it  was  optional,  but  in  the 
summer  of  this  year  it  was  announced  that  overtime  is 
compulsory. 

At  a  secret  meeting  on  the  5th  of  September,  1920,  the 
representatives  of  the  Petrograd  Labour  Organizations 
adopted  the  following  resolution:  "Never  before  has 
overtime  work  been  practised  so  widely  as  now ;  the  worst 
of  it  is  that  more  than  80%  of  the  overtime  is  com- 
pulsory and  any  refusal  on  the  part  of  the  workmen 
is  severely  punished." 

Overtime  work  is  remunerated  as  follows :  for  the  first 
two  hours — double  pay ;  for  the  second  two  hours — time 
and  a  half. 

The  normal  working  day  is  8  hours  and  44  hours  per 
week,  but  owing  to  compulsory  overtime  the  Russian 
metal  worker  works  now  12  hours  a  day,  and  72  hours  a 
week.  Sometimes  compulsory  work  is  performed  on 
Sundays,  which  makes  80  hours  per  week. 

The  workmen,  far  from  being  pleased  with  these 
methods,  resist  them,  and  as  a  result  a  wave  of  strikes 
passed  all  over  Soviet  Russia  in  1920. 

There  is  little  known  in  Europe  about  these  strikes 
or  the  measures  taken  to  suppress  them,  as  the  Bolshevik 
Government  which  controls  all  papers  and  journals,  does 
not  allow  this  information  to  appear  in  the  press.  But 
in  official  documents  we  find  the  following  information 
(Central  Committee  of  Statistics  of  the  Commissariat  of 
Labour). 

During  the  first  six  months  of  1920 : 
.     1.  Strikes  have  been  called  in  77%  of  the  large  and 
middle  sized  works. 


SLAVERY  AND  COMPULSORY  LABOR      77 

2.  In  nationalized  undertakings  strikes  are  continuous 
and  90%  of  them  are  called  at  such  factories  and  works. 

As  a  part  of  the  system  of  Labor  compulsion  absolute 
dictators  have  been  placed  over  the  factories  with  the 
power  of  life  and  death.  Schliapnikoff,  Chief  Commissar 
of  Labor,  printed  the  following  explanation  in  the  Rus- 
sian Bolshevist  press  on  November  13,  1919 : 

All  those  circumstances  (a  total  absence  of  order  and 
discipline  in  the  factories)  put  together  have  compelled 
us  to  abolish  the  Working  Men's  Councils  and  to  place 
at  the  head  of  the  most  important  concerns  special 
"  dictators, "  with  unlimited  powers  and  entitled  to  dis- 
pose of  the  life  and  death  of  the  workmen. 

The  ' '  Code  of  Labor  Laws ' '  was  by  no  means  the  last 
experiment  in  methods  of  enslavement,  Trotzky  follow- 
ing this  up  with  the  plan  for  utilizing  the  thousands 
of  conscripts  of  the  Red  Army  for  purposes  of  labor, 
thus  going  back  to  the  military  slavery  of  ancient  Egypt 
and  Peru. 

Lenin  and  Trotzky  have  freely  expended  their  rhetor- 
ical and  propaganda  talents  to  justify  the  new  slavery, 
not  as  a  temporary  expedient  but  as  resting  upon  the 
permanent  principles  of  Sovietism.  In  his  booklet  "The 
State  and  the  Revolution"  (pages  51  and  67)  Lenin 
says: 

We  want  the  Socialist  revolution  with  human  nature 
as  it  is  now;  human  nature  itself  cannot  do  without 
subordination.  There  must  be  submission  to  the  armed 
vanguard  of  the  proletariat. 

Until  people  grow  accustomed  to  observing  the  elemen- 
tary conditions  of  social  existence  without  force  and 


78  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

without  subjection  there  must  be  suppression,  and  it  is 
clear  that  where  there  is  suppression  there  must  also  be 
violence  and  there  cannot  be  liberty  or  democracy. 


This  reasoning  on  the  surface  means  that  no  peoples 
are  ready  for  liberty  or  democracy,  and  as  there  must 
be  some  form  of  dictatorship,  why  not  the  dictatorship 
of  Lenin  and  his  Party?  But  under  the  surface  is  also 
the  shrewd  calculation,  evident  throughout  the  Soviet 
leader's  statements,  that  the  Russian  masses,  being  accus- 
tomed to  merciless  repression  and  subjection  will  finally 
give  up  hope  of  self-government  and  submit  to  the 
Soviet's  rule  if  the  Bolshevists  can  remain  a  few  years 
longer  in  the  saddle. 

In  his  official  report  to  the  Soviet  Economic  Confer- 
ence in  January,  1920,  Lenin  frankly  justified  the  rule 
of  a  minority  of  the  city  workers,  which  he  calls  the 
conscious  "vanguard,"  over  the  majority  of  the  city 
workers  as  well  as  the  peasants  who  constitute  90  per 
cent  of  the  population — and  it  is  to  be  an  arbitrary 
personal  rule  like  that  of  the  army.  Here  is  what  he 
said: 


In  the  organization  of  the  army  we  have  passed  from 
the  principle  of  command  by  committee  to  the  direct 
command  of  the  chiefs.  We  must  do  the  same  in  the 
organization  of  Government  and  industry. 

Through  committee  power  and  its  development  we 
have  arrived  at  autocracy,  but  it  does  not  give  that 
rapidity  to  our  work  which  is  required  by  the  situation. 
In  the  autocracy  of  the  chiefs  of  Communism  and  the 
Communist  domination  of  the  people  lies  the  pledge  of 
our  success. 


SLAVERY  AND  COMPULSORY  LABOR      79 

So  in  speaking  of  the  new  compulsory  labor  armies 
'under  military  discipline  Trotzky  said  at  the  same  con- 
gress: 

This  is  but  the  beginning  of  our  work.  There  will 
J)e  many  drawbacks  at  first,  much  will  have  to  be  altered, 
but  the  basis  itself  cannot  be  unsound,  as  it  is  the  same 
as  that  on  which  our  entire  Soviet  structure  is  founded 
(i.e.,  this  is  not  a  temporary  military  expedient). 

As  to  the  workmen,  Trotzky  said: 

All  artisans  will  be  sent  into  the  works  and  trans- 
ferred from  one  place  to  another,  according  to  the  in- 
dications of  the  Government.  We  will  have  no  pity 
for  the  peasants;  we  will  make  labor  armies  of  them, 
with  military  discipline  and  Communists  as  their  chiefs. 
These  armies  will  go  forth  among  the  peasants  to  gather 
corn,  meat  and  fish  that  the  work  of  the  workmen  may 
be  assured. 

The  Soviet  scheme  of  compulsory  labor  is  being  ap- 
plied on  such  a  broad  scale  and  is  so  boldly  presented 
as  a  "proletarian"  scheme  that  it  constitutes  the  gravest 
danger  that  has  confronted  labor  for  centuries.  It  is 
undoubtedly  destined  to  become  historic.  It  is  therefore 
well  worth  while  to  present  at  somewhat  greater  length 
the  extraordinary  reasoning  by  which  Trotzky  and 
Lenin  seek  to  defend  it.  The  first  full  justification  was 
presented  by  Trotzky  to  the  Communist  Party  Congress 
in  March,  1920,  and  was  published  in  the  official  Soviet 
organ  of  Moscow  on  the  21st.  Its  most  important  points 
are  perhaps  the  following: 

At  the  present  time  the  militarization  of  labor  is  all 
the  more  needed  in  that  we  have  now  come  to  the 


80  OUT  OF   THEIR   OWN   MOUTHS 

mobilization  of  peasants  as  the  means  of  solving  the 
problems  requiring  mass  action.  We  are  mobilizing  the 
peasants  and  forming  them  into  labor  detachments  which 
very  closely  resemble  military  detachments. 

Some  of  our  comrades  say,  however,  that  even  though 
in  the  case  of  the  working  power  of  mobilized  peasantry 
it  is  necessary  to  apply  militarization,  a  military  ap- 
paratus need  not  be  created  when  the  question  involves 
skilled  labor  and  industry  because  there  we  have  profes- 
sional (labor)  unions  performing  the  function  of  or- 
ganizing labor.  This  opinion,  however,  is  erroneous.  .  .  . 

We  have  in  the  most  important  branches  of  our  in- 
dustry more  than  a  million  workmen  on  the  lists,  but 
not  more  than  eight  hundred  thousand  of  them  are 
actually  working,  and  where  are  the  remainder?  They 
have  gone  to  the  villages  or  to  other  divisions  of  indus- 
try or  into  speculation.  Among  soldiers  this  is  called 
desertion,  and,  in  one  form  or  another,  the  measures 
used  to  compel  soldiers  to  do  their  duty  should  be  applied 
in  the  field  of  labor. 

Under  a  unified  system  of  economy  the  masses  of 
workmen  should  be  moved  about,  ordered  and  sent  from 
place  to  place  in  exactly  the  same  manner  as  soldiers. 
This  is  the  foundation  of  the  militarization  of  labor,  and 
without  this  we  are  unable  to  speak  seriously  of  any 
organization  of  industry  on  a  new  basis  in  the  conditions 
of  starvation  and  disorganization  existing  today. 

In  the  period  of  transition  in  the  organization  of  labor 
compulsion  plays  a  very  important  part.  The  statement 
that  free  labor,  namely,  freely  employed  labor,  produces 
more  than  labor  under  compulsion  is  correct  only  when 
applied  to  feudalistic  and  bourgeois  orders  of  society. 

Later  in  the  year  in  an  article  republished  by  the 
official  Bolshevist  organ  in  America,  Soviet  Russia, 
Trotzky  explains  at  length  that  compulsory  labor  is  the 
backbone  of  Soviet  communism.  According  to  Trotzky 


SLAVERY  AND  COMPULSORY  LABOR      81 

Russia  is  in  a  period  of  transition  to  communist  socialism 
which  must  last  many  years.    He  says : 

The  transition  to  socialism  means  the  transition  from 
a  rudimentary  distribution  of  labor  power  (by  the  play 
of  purchase  and  sale,  by  movement  of  market  and  labor 
wages)  to  a  planful  distribution  of  workers  through  the 
economic  organs  of  the  district,  of  the  province,  of  the 
entire  country.  Such  a  planful  distribution  presupposes 
the  subordination  of  those  to  be  distributed  to  the 
economic  plan  of  the  state.  This  is  the  essence  of  labor 
duty,  which  unquestionably  is  contained  as  a  fundamen- 
tal element  in  the  program  of  the  socialist  organization 
of  labor. 

The  carrying  out  of  obligatory  labor  is  inconceivable 
without  an  application  of  the  methods  of  the  militariza- 
tion of  labor  in  greater  or  less  measure. 

Why  do  we  speak  of  a  militarization?  Of  course  this 
is  only  an  analogy.  But  it  is  a  very  pregnant  analogy. 
No  other  social  organization,  with  the  exception  of  the 
army,  has  ever  considered  itself  justified  to  subordinate 
citizens  to  such  an  extent,  to  develop  them  on  all  sides 
~by  the  application  of  its  will  as  the  state  of  the  pro- 
letarian dictatorship  is  doing  and  considers  itself  jus- 
tified in  doing. 

Trotzky  asserts  that  compulsory  labor  is  the  very 
foundation  of  the  Soviet  State  and  that  it  will  have  to 
remain  the  basis  until  the  coming  generation  through 
compulsion,  terror,  and  the  Bolshevist  press  and  school 
monopoly  (which  Trotzky  calls  education)  has  converted 
the  population  into  communism.  This  is  the  view  ex- 
pressed in  the  "theses"  which  he  presented  to  the  Eco- 
nomic Congress  on  January  24,  1920.  One  of  these 
"theses"  is  the  following: 


82  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS' 

In  building  up  a  society  upon  the  remains  of  a  very 
much  confused  and  disorganized  industry,  transition  to 
a  systematic  basis  is  inconceivable  without  the  applica- 
tion of  compulsory  measures  relating  to  the  backward 
elements  of  the  peasantry  and  working  class.  The  means 
of  compulsion  at  the  disposal  of  the  state  form  its  mili- 
tary power.  Consequently,  the  organization  of  work  on 
a  military  basis,  in  some  form  or  other,  is  an  uncondi- 
tional necessity  for  every  society  which  is  built  upon 
the  principle  of  compulsory  labof. 

Compulsory  measures  will  be  less  and  less  needed  as 
the  system  of  socialization  of  industry  develops,  and  the 
conditions  of  labor  become  more  favorable,  and  as  the 
educational  level  of  the  coming  generation  is  raised. 

Noteworthy  in  this  "thesis"  is  the  fact  that  any  ele- 
ment of  the  working  class  which  the  communists  may 
be  pleased  to  designate  as  "backward"  is  to  be  treated 
the  same  as  the  Russian  agriculturists  or  peasants,  i.e., 
the  same  as  the  outlawed  "bourgeois." 

By  such  arguments  Trotzky  defends  also  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  Taylor  system,  bonuses,  etc. : 

"Therefore  wages  for  labor,"  he  continues,  "both  in 
the  form  of  money  and  in  that  of  commodities,  must  be 
made  to  coincide  as  far  as  possible  with  the  productivity 
of  the  individual  laborer.  Under  capitalism,  piece  work 
and  agreements  for  pay,  application  of  the  Taylor 
methods,  etc.,  had  the  object  of  increasing  the  exploita- 
tion of  the  workers  by  squeezing  out  a  surplus  profit. 
In  socialist  production,  pay  for  piece  work,  premiums, 
have  the  object  of  increasing  the  social  production  and 
with  it  also  the  general  well-being." 

Yet  one  of  the  slogans  by  which  the  Bolshevists  tricked 
labor  into  that  measure  of  support  they  needed  to  get 


SLAVERY  AND  COMPULSORY  LABOR      83 

themselves  into  power  was  precisely  the  abolition  of  the 
bonus  system.  In  November,  1917,  Lenin  said:  ''The 
bonus  system  is  a  heritage  of  the  capitalistic  regime  and 
we  repudiate  it."  And  now  we  see  the  bonus  system 
not  only  restored  but  established  in  places  where  it  did 
not  exist  before. 

Another  promise  to  labor  by  which  the  Bolshevists 
were  helped  into  power  was  a  shorter  working  day.  Now 
they  have  made  long  hours  and  Sunday  work  compul- 
sory: 

Our  workday  lasts  twelve  hours.  "We  are  compelled 
to  work  in  two  shifts  in  the  paper  department  of  our 
factory,  and  we  are  forced  to  work  both  Saturdays  and 
Sundays.  No  exception  is  made  with  regard  to  women. 
Since  August  15,  overtime  work  has  become  compulsory. 
(Resolution  of  Petrograd  government  printing  office 
workers. ) 

No  leave  of  absence  is  to  be  granted  to  the  workers. 
Failure  to  do  overtime  work  is  punishable,  the  first  time 
by  forfeiture  of  food  allowance,  and  the  second  time  by 
court  action.  Lateness  of  ten  minutes  on  the  job  will 
be  fined  with  loss  of  a  day's  pay.  (From  an  order  of 
the  Petrograd  government  printing  office,  signed  by 
Manager  Forst,  August,  1920.) 

A  report  at  the  Russian  Trade  Union  Congress  of 
1920  declared  that  the  flight  to  the  villages  was  so  great 
that  the  proletariat  was  disappearing,  melting  away. 
Surely  a  rather  serious  state  of  affairs  under  the  ' '  dicta- 
torship of  the  proletariat  I"  The  official  representative 
of  the  Petrograd  labor  unions  in  one  of  their  resolutions 
declared : 


84  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

We  feel  as  if  we  were  hard  labor  convicts,  where  every- 
thing but  our  feeding  has  been  made  subject  to  iron 
rules.  We  have  become  lost  as  human  beings,  and  have 
been  turned  into  slaves.  (Resolution  of  Petrograd 
workers  of  September  5,  1920.) 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  arguments  of  Lenin 
differ  from  those  of  Trotzky  on  this  fundamental  point. 
The  American  organ  Soviet  Russia  declares  that 
Soviet  Russia  is  "the  property  of  the  producers"  and 
"every  worker  belongs  to  Soviet  Russia."  No  more  ab- 
solute abandonment  of  individual  liberty  has  ever  been 
seen  in  print.  Soviet  Russia  then  proceeds  to  justify 
itself  by  reproducing  the  following  article  from  the  pen 
of  Lenin,  who  differs  from  Trotzky  only  in  the  proposi- 
tion that  methods  of  compulsion  will  have  to  be  con- 
tinued not  for  one  but  for  many  generations: 

Communist  labor,  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  word, 
is  the  voluntary  labor  of  future  society,  performed  with- 
out pay,  not  as  a  definite  duty,  not  in  order  to  obtain 
the  right  to  a  share  of  production,  and  not  according 
to  rigid  rules.  It  is  labor  performed  freely,  bound  by 
no  rule,  without  regard  to  compensation,  and  not  with 
an  eye  to  any  reward.  It  is  labor  performed  as  a  habit, 
for  the  common  good,  and  with  the  realization  of  its 
necessity  (which  will  also  become  a  habit),  in  order  to 
provide  for  the  needs  of  society. 

It  is  clear  to  every  one  that  we,  and  this  means  our 
society,  must  advance  very  far  indeed  before  labor  of 
this  kind  can  be  realized  in  our  social  order. 

To  build  up  a  new  labor  discipline,  to  create  new  forms 
of  social  relations,  to  find  new  methods  of  drawing  people 
to  work — this  is  a  task  of  many  generations.  It  is  the 
supreme  task.  .  .  , 


SLAVERY  AND  COMPULSORY  LABOR      85 

To  succeed  in  great  things,  we  mnst  begin  in  little 
things.  And  even  after  the  "great"  thing — the  over- 
throw of  the  state,  whereby  capitalism  is  destroyed  and 
power  is  transferred  to  the  proletariat — the  formation 
of  industrial  life  on  a  new  basis  must  start  with  the 
little  things.  Communist  Saturdays,  industrial  armies, 
compulsory  labor — these  are  various  forms  of  the  prac- 
tical working  out  of  Socialist  labor. 

A  radical  American  Socialist,  Albert  Boni  (formerly 
of  the  publishing  firm  of  Boni  and  Liveright)  who  has 
just  returned  from  several  months  in  Soviet  Russia  has 
given  us,  in  the  New  York  Globe,  a  pro-Soviet  news- 
paper, the  following  unforgettable  picture  of  the  new 
slavery. 

The  industrial  collapse  of  Russia  brings  not  merely 
a  problem  of  technical  reorganization,  replacement  of 
machinery  and  supplying  raw  materials  and  motive 
power.  The  Communist  party  is  facing  a  situation  in 
which  the  laboring  classes,  in  whose  behalf,  supposedly, 
the  Communist  party  is  working,  are  proving  themselves 
not  only  unwilling,  but  unable  to  endure  the  hardships 
and  suffering  that  industrial  disorganization  has  imposed 
upon  them.  In  the  face  of  impossible  living  conditions, 
the  workers  are  abandoning  the  cities  for  the  country 
and  its  more  certain  existence. 

To  meet  the  dearth  of  man-power,  the  Russian  govern- 
ment decreed  that  every  male  over  sixteen  years  of  age 
must  labor  at  such  tasks  as  the  state  may  assign.  Labor 
books,  showing  that  this  obligation  is  being  fulfilled,  have 
been  issued  to  all  citizens,  replacing  passports  and  all 
other  identification  papers. 

Wherever  plans  of  the  central  government  meet  with 
opposition  they  have  one  resort  that  never  fails — military 
force  and  the  terror  imposed  by  the  extraordinary  com- 
mission. But  the  peasants  are  already  in  a  state  of  too 


86          OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

great  restlessness  to  permit  of  forcible  measures  over 
wide  stretches  of  territory  without  great  risks  of  serious 
consequences.  Conscription  of  labor  is  going  forward 
very  slowly,  and  only  where  the  Communist  forces  are 
gathered  in  such  strength  that  resistance  is  rendered 
impossible. 

The  Russian  laborer  is  held  tied  to  his  shop  as  closely 
as  any  feudal  serf  was  bound  to  the  land  of  Ids  lord. 
Transfer  of  employees  from  one  factory  to  another  is 
possible  only  with  the  consent  of  the  shop  directorate. 
Travel  beyond  a  radius  of  twenty-five  miles  is  possible 
only  with  the  consent  of  the  local  representatives  of  the 
extraordinary  commission,  which  permission  is  granted 
only  upon  the  request  of  the  factory  executive.  Deser- 
tion from  factories  is  punishable  by  reduction  of  food 
ration,  and,  if  repeated,  by  arrest  and  internment  in 
concentration  camps.  Some  of  the  most  important  plants 
are  being  operated  like  military  encampments,  workers' 
quarters  having  been  erected  upon  the  grounds.  There 
the  employees  are  held  under  armed  guards  and  require 
special  passes  to  enter  and  to  leave. 

Military  discipline  has  been  introduced  in  all  works. 
Fines  are  imposed  for  workers  arriving  late,  heavy 
punishments  are  exacted  from  those  failing  to  appear 
unless  satisfactory  justification  of  their  absence  is  forth- 
coming. Factories  are  again  placed  under  individual 
control  with  dictatorial  power  in  directorates'  hands 
over  conditions  of  work.  Overtime  is  demanded  as  re- 
quired. Piece  work,  premiums,  the  Taylor  system,  all 
possible  methods  are  introduced  to  speed  up  the  ex- 
hausted worker.  In  each  factory  are  representatives  of 
the  extraordinary  commission  reporting  all  cases  of  dis- 
content and  mischief  makers  are  dealt  with  severely. 
Strikes  are  absolutely  forbidden,  and  any  attempts  to 
organize  the  workers  to  resist  the  imposition  of  new 
demands  are  called  counter-revolutionary  activities  for 
which  long-term  imprisonment  is  the  lightest  possible 
punishment. 


SLAVERY  AND   COMPULSORY  LABOR      87 

As  far  as  is  possible  under  that  ruthless  tyranny  the 
organized  labor  of  Russia  is  everywhere  in  a  state  of 
full  revolt.  The  organized  workers  are  doing  what  they 
can  to  reach  the  hearts  and  minds  of  laboring  humanity 
in  all  countries,  but  they  are  working  against  overwhelm- 
ing obstacles — the  refusal  of  the  bread  card,  which  means 
immediate  starvation  for  their  families,  the  firing  squad, 
death  by  torture  in  prisons.  It  is  difficult  for  them 
even  to  speak,  and  a  decree  especially  forbidding  speeches 
at  labor  union  meetings  has  been  issued.  Martoff,  the 
world-renowned  leader  of  the  Social-Democratic  Party, 
has  described  a  special  decree  prohibiting — under 
threat  of  the  revolutionary  tribunal — speeches  at  work- 
men's meetings  without  special  permission  from  the  Mos- 
cow authorities.  Martoff  says  that  since  the  decree  was 
issued  not  a  single  social-democrat  has  obtained  this  per- 
mission. Another  decree  calls  for  the  compulsory  at- 
tendance of  workmen  at  meetings  at  which  the  benefits 
of  Soviet  rule  are  expounded,  time  being  paid  for  attend- 
ance! 


THE  PERSECUTION  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR: 
TRADE  UNIONS 

IN  Soviet  Russia  the  Bolshevists  are  using  many  words 
with  a  new  meaning.  It  has  been  shown  how  they 
sometimes  employ  the  word  "democracy"  to  mean  the 
reverse  of  what  all  civilized  peoples  and  all  the  labor 
movements  of  the  world  have  hitherto  meant  by  the 
word.  So  also,  after  abolishing  all  the  rights  of  labor 
and  labor  organizations  and  of  cooperatives  the  Bol- 
shevists, nevertheless,  continue  to  apply  the  terms  "trade 
unions"  and  "cooperatives"  to  the  empty  shells  that 
remain. 

In  Soviet  Russia  (April  2,  1921)  we  read:  "The 
trade  unions  have  been  practically  transformed  into 
organs  of  the  Soviet  Government.  Membership  in  the 
trade  unions  is  now  compulsory  for  Russian  workers." 
Never  before  has  the  term  "trade  union"  been  applied 
to  a  compulsory  state  organization.  "We  shall  show  below 
that  even  the  Bolshevists  themselves  are  divided  as  to 
whether  they  shall  now  regard  all  the  seven  million 
industrial,  governmental  and  agricultural  workers  whom 
they  seek  to  classify  as  the  "proletariat"  as  being  mem- 
bers of  the  trade  unions  or  not.  It  is  conceded  that  a 
large  part  of  these  people  do  not  realize  that  they  are 
members  of  trade  unions  and  do  not  even  pay  dues.  In 
fact,  the  dues  seem  to  be  paid  by  the  Government,  as  we 

88 


PERSECUTION  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR      89 

may  see  from  the  following  Moscow  wireless  sent  out 
in  December,  1920,  to  trade  union  officials  throughout 
Russia : 

In  compliance  with  the  decision  of  the  8th  Congress 
financial  accounts  must  be  rendered  every  month.  The 
majority  of  Government  Trade  Union  Soviets  at  present 
do  not  render  any  such  accounts.  The  Central  Soviet 
of  Trade  Unions  begs  to  inform  all  Government  Soviets 
of  trade  unions  that  unless  they  send  in  monthly 
accounts  dating  from  October  30th  in  compliance  with 
regulations,  they  will  receive  no  funds.  The  decision 
of  the  People's  Commissariat. 

Also  these  "trade  unions"  do  not  have  the  right  to 
strike  or  to  propose  a  change  in  the  form  of  government. 
They  may  elect  their  own  officials  if  the  officials  elected 
meet  the  approval  of  the  Communist  Party,  otherwise 
the  officials  are  "appointed." 

In  his  report  to  the  party  printed  (See  Krasnaya 
Gazeta)  January  11,  1921,  Zinoviev  declared: 

At  the  present  moment  we  have  24  trade  unions, 
counting  in  their  ranks  6,970,000  members.  But  the 
larger  portion  of  these  members  have  been  ascribed  to 
the  unions  mechanically. 

Only  a  minority,  at  the  very  best,  half  a  million,  are 
members  of  the  party. 

If  we  recall  the  fact  that  only  70,000  industrial 
workers  are  listed  by  the  Communist  Party  itself  as 
party  members,  we  see  that  Zinoviev 's  estimate  of  com- 
munist trade  unionists  is  indeed  high — as  he  confesses. 
The  British  Labor  Delegation  to  Soviet  Russia  reports 


90          OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

an   entirely  different   number  even   of  "mechanically 
ascribed"  so-called  "trade  unionists."    They  say: 

It  was  put  to  us  that  the  Communist  Party,  number- 
ing 600,000  members,  could  be  likened  to  a  small  cog- 
wheel which  turns  a  larger  cog-wheel  representing  the 
Trade  Union  movement  numbering  4,500,000  members. 
This  in  turn  revolves  the  great  wheel  of  Russia's  indus- 
trial and  agricultural  system. 

Whether  the  number  of  workers  labeled  "trade  union- 
ists" by  the  Soviet  Government  is  4,500,000  or  7,000,000, 
whether  the  number  of  party  members  among  them  is 
100,000  or  500,000,  it  may  be  seen  that  the  proportion 
of  Communists  is  not  higher  than  one-ninth,  and  prob- 
ably very  much  less. 

According  to  Zorin's  official  report,  on  June  1,  1920, 
out  of  the  29,000  railroad  workers  of  the  Petrograd 
district  only  895  were  Communists,  while  of  5,000  em- 
ployed in  the  water,  gas  and  electric  works  only  145 
were  Communists — that  is  three  per  cent  in  each  instance. 

The  decisions  of  the  Communist  Party  do  not  leave 
any  doubt  about  the  place  of  these  so-called  "trade 
unions"  in  the  Soviet  State.  The  party  congress  in 
April,  1920,  was  very  explicit  on  the  subject,  as  we  may 
see  from  the  following  decisions : 

The  Trade  Unions  and  the  Soviet  State. 

The  Soviet  State  is  the  widest  imaginable  form  of 
Labour  Organisation  which  is  actually  realising  the  con- 
struction of  Communism,  constantly  attracting  to  this 
work  ever-growing  masses  of  the  peasantry.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Soviet  State  represents  Labour  Organisation 
which  has  at  its  disposal  all  the  material  means  of  com- 


PERSECUTION  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR     91 

pulsion.  In  the  present  form  of  Proletarian  Dictator- 
ship, the  Soviet  State  is  the  lever  of  the  economic  coup 
d'etat.  There  is,  therefore,  no  question  of  opposing  the 
organs  of  the  Soviet  Government. 

Politics  may  be  said  to  be  the  most  concentrated 
expression  of  the  generalisation  and  completion  of 
economics.  Therefore,  any  antagonism  of  the  economic 
organisation  of  the  working-class  known  as  the  Trade 
Unions  towards  its  political  organisation — i.e.,  the  Soviets 
— is  an  absurdity  and  is  deviating  from  Marxism  to- 
wards bourgeois  ideas  and  particularly  towards  bourgeois 
Trade  Union  prejudices.  This  kind  of  antagonism  is 
still  more  harmful  and  absurd  during  the  epoch  of 
Proletarian  Dictatorship  when  all  the  struggle  of  the 
proletariat  and  the  whole  of  its  political  and  economical 
activity  should  more  than  ever  be  concentrated,  united 
and  directed  by  one  single  will  and  bound  by  an  iron 
unity. 

The  Trade  Unions  and  the  Communist  Party. 

The  Communist  Party  is  the  leading  organisation  of 
the  working-class,  the  guide  of  the  Proletarian  Move- 
ment and  of  the  struggle  for  the  establishment  of  the 
Communist  system. 

It  is  therefore  necessary  that  every  Trade  Union 
should  possess  a  strictly  disciplined  organised  fraction 
of  the  Communist  Party.  Every  fraction  of  the  Party 
represents  a  section  of  the  local  organisation  which  is 
under  the  control  of  the  Party  Committee,  whilst  frac- 
tions of  the  All-Russian  Central  Council  of  Trade  Unions 
are  under  the  control  of  the  Central  Committee  of  the 
Russian  Communist  Party. 

Under  such  a  regulation  it  was  natural  that  even  the 
hollow  shells  of  "trade  unions"  should  almost  cease  to 
exist,  and  it  seems  that  an  accusation  to  this  effect  was 
actually  made  by  Trotzky  at  a  meeting  reported  in 


92          OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

Izvestia  January  1,  1921,  as  we  may  see  from  the  follow- 
ing remarks  by  Zinoviev: 

Many  people  say  that  the  Professional  Unions  just 
at  present  are  suffering  a  grave  crisis,  and  even  that 
our  Unions  are  on  the  brink  of  ruin.  Comrade  Trotzky 
began  with  this  point.  No  one  can  say  that  our  Unions 
are  in  a  satisfying  shape.  On  the  contrary  the  apparatus 
of  the  Unions  is  very  weak,  and  will  remain  weak  as 
long  as  their  financial  support  is  as  small  as  at  present. 

And  is  it  true  in  fact,  what  comrade  Trotzky  said: 
"Where  are  the  Professional  Unions,  they  are  doing 
nothing,  they  have  no  foundation."  The  Professional 
Unions  are  weak  owing  to  the  civil  war  and  to  lack 
of  attention,  but  is  it  really  true,  that  they  do  not  exist  T 

For  such  "trade  unions"  to  strike  is  not  only  against 
the  law;  it  is  regarded  as  treason  or  desertion,  and  it 
may  be  punished  as  such.  For  example,  the  Moscow 
Soviet,  as  reported  in  Izvestia  of  July  2,  1918,  resolved : 

As  from  now,  the  organised  forces  of  the  proletariat, 
the  trades  unions  (professional  associations)  will  be 
under  the  management  of  the  Council  of  National 
Economy,  which  will  organise  the  management  and 
production  of  industrial  enterprises.  Under  these  new 
methods  of  management,  the  workers  will  see  to  dis- 
cipline and  the  increase  of  productivity,  and  will  end 
the  economic  disorganisation.  Under  these  conditions 
every  stoppage  of  work  and  all  strikes  will  be  an  act 
of  treason  to  the  proletarian  revolution. 

A  picture  of  the  practical  workings  of  this  kind  of 
"trade  unionism"  was  given  to  the  British  Labor  Dele- 
gation in  Moscow  by  one  of  the  officers  of  the  Printers' 
Union,  A.  Kefali,  on  May  23,  1920.  We  quote  a  few 


PERSECUTION  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR      93 

sentences  only  from  this  extremely  interesting  and  im- 
portant speech — which  the  printers  assert  led  to  the 
imprisonment  of  all  the  chief  officers  of  the  union: 

One  may  exhibit  a  sitting  of  the  Moscow  Soviet,  con- 
sisting exclusively  of  Communists;  one  may  show  a  sit- 
ting of  the  Russian  Central  Board  of  Trade  Unions, 
consisting  exclusively  of  Communists,  but  one  cannot 
show  a  single  free  workmen's  meeting  that  will  have  a 
Communist  majority. 

Here  are  thousands  of  Moscow  printers,  behind  whom 
stand  scores  of  thousands  of  Moscow  and  other  Russian 
workmen  who,  at  the  epoch  of  the  Russian  Revolution, 
under  a  government  that  calls  itself  a  workmen's  govern- 
ment— a  government  realising  its  socialistic  programme, 
a  government  calling  Socialism  to  life,  a  government 
annihilating  the  parasitic  classes — those  thousands  of 
Moscow  printers,  I  say,  and  behind  them  scores  and 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  Russian  workmen,  have  all  of 
them  under  this  government  no  right  to  vote,  no  right 
to  assemble,  no  right  to  print.  As  in  the  time  of  the 
Czar's  government,  the  printers  are  forced  to  print,  not 
their  own  thoughts,  but  calumnies  against  themselves. 

Communists  sometimes  use  menaces  of  arrests  against 
the  workers  to  oblige  them  to  leave  their  posts  in  the 
board  of  the  Union  voluntarily,  and  in  practice  this 
often  happens.  Sometimes  they  do  it  otherwise;  they 
say  that  if  a  Communist  is  not  elected  to  the  Board  or 
Factory  Workers'  Committee,  they,  the  Communists, 
will  arrange  things  so  that  their  workers  will  receive 
less  food  and  other  necessary  things.  And  sometimes 
this  produces  its  effect.  This  affirmation  can  be  verified 
in  a  series  of  factories  in  Moscow. 

When  such  means  have  no  result,  the  Communists  let 
the  local  Soviets  or  the  Central  Council  of  Trade  Unions 
dissolve  the  Board  of  the  Trade  Unions;  such  was  the 
case  with  the  first  Central  Board  of  the  Printers'  Union. 


M  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

The  militarization  and  coercion  of  labor  has  proceeded 
so  far  as  to  lead  to  a  movement  of  revolt  even  within 
these  governmental  "trade  unions"  and  within  the  Com- 
munist Party  itself.  The  revolt  began  as  a  reaction 
against  the  extreme  violence  of  the  head  of  the  Red 
Army,  Trotzky.  We  take  the  following  from  the  friendly 
New  Statesman  of  London;  it  is  amply  supported  by 
Soviet  documents: 

It  is  well  known  that  early  in  1920  Trotsky  made  an 
attempt  to  militarise  industry  by  transforming  a  few 
of  the  Red  armies  into  labor  battalions. 

At  first  these  "Labor  armies"  aroused  much  hope  and 
were  greatly  advertised  by  the  Communists  as  the  last 
word  in  a  reconstruction  crusade,  but  they  soon  proved 
an  utter  failure. 

Only  20-24  per  cent,  of  the  soldiers  actually  did  any 
work — and  that  in  a  wasteful  and  grossly  unproductive 
way.  The  rest  were  occupied  in  supplying  them  and 
in  preserving  the  military  character  of  the  institution. 

After  a  short  period  of  enthusiasm  and  exaltation,  the 
experiment  was  recognized  as  a  wasteful  delusion,  and 
the  Polish  attack  made  an  end  of  it  before  its  folly 
became  too  obvious. 

Trotsky,  however,  did  not  give  up  the  idea  of  apply- 
ing military  methods  to  industry.  As  the  Acting  Com- 
missar for  Transport,  in  the  absence  of  Krassin,  he 
introduced  military  discipline  on  the  railways. 

Commissars,  revolutionary  tribunals,  political  intelli- 
gence and  supervision  replaced  ordinary  methods  of 
management. 

Elections,  even  of  a  limited  scope  and  under  pressure, 
which  are  still  tolerated  in  other  unions,  were  completely 
abolished,  all  officers  of  the  Railway  Union  being  ap- 
pointed by  the  Chief  Commissar. 

All  this  could  be  tolerated  during  the  war,  because 
the  railways  were  justly  considered  a  part  of  the  war 


PERSECUTION  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR      95 

machine,  but  with  the  war  over,  the  railwaymen  began 
to  protest  against  military  management. 

Other  unions,  too,  raised  their  voice  against  the  per- 
manent militarization  of  the  railways. 

At  the  beginning  of  November  (1920)  the  Conference 
of  Trade  Unions  passed  a  resolution  which  recommended 
"the  most  energetic  and  systematic  struggle  against  cen- 
tralism, militarization,  bureaucratism  as  well  as  auto- 
cratic and  minute  tutelage  of  the  workers '  unions. ' ' 

The  conference  expressed  also  its  conviction  that  "it 
is  high  time  for  the  Railway  Union  to  abolish  military 
methods  and  return  to  ordinary  proletarian  democracy 
within  the  union." 

But  Trotsky — the  head  of  the  union — ignored  the 
decision  of  the  conference.  Pointing  out  the  manifest 
improvement  of  the  transport  under  his  management, 
he  started  a  campaign  for  the  adoption  of  military 
methods  all  round  as  the  basis  for  a  new  efficiency  in 
industry. 

Far  from  denying  his  action  in  appointing  the  chiefs 
of  the  railway  unions,  Trotzky  defended  it  at  the  con- 
gress of  the  transport  workers.  His  speech  is  quoted  in 
the  New  York  Call  of  January  14,  1921,  as  follows : 

Now  as  to  the  question  of  appointees.  Is  it  right,  as 
the  State  has  said,  that  it  was  necessary  to  change  the 
head  official  of  the  union  ?  Rightly  or  wrongly  we  have 
intervened.  .  .  . 

The  union  was  not  suited  to  the  revolutionary  demands 
of  the  working-class,  and  our  faction  waged  a  merciless 
internal  struggle  and  put  its  own  men  everywhere.  .  .  . 

And  so  the  working-class,  in  the  persons  of  its  political 
representatives,  says:  Here  we  interfere;  we  are  going 
to  narrow  this  period  of  struggle  between  the  two 
groups ;  we  economize ;  we  diminish ;  we  order.  To  deny 
the  principle  of  intervention  is  to  deny  that  we  live  in 
a  workers'  state. 


96  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

At  the  congress  of  the  trade  unions  held  early  in  1921, 
Trotzky  declared :  ' '  It  will  be  necessary  to  reorganize  the 
unions  without  delay,  that  is,  first  of  all  to  shift  the 
personnel  of  the  more  responsible  positions."  In  other 
words,  he  proposed  to  apply  generally  the  system  of 
appointment  of  labor  union  officials  by  the  Communist 
Party — which  he  had  already  instituted  on  the  railways. 
The  name  he  gave  to  this  policy  was:  "democracy  in 
the  matter  of  production."  Even  Lenin  himself  at  this 
meeting  made  fun  of  this  strange  perversion  of  language 
— although  it  is  entirely  typical  of  the  usual  Bolshevist 
inversions  in  the  use  of  words.  Lenin  declared  that 
Trotzky 's  plan  was  merely  an  increase  of  "  bureau- 
cratism." (From  report  of  the  All-Russian  Conference 
of  Professional  or  Labor  Unions,  Pravda,  January  13, 
1921.) 

Lenin  accused  Trotzky  of  lack  of  tact  in  discussing 
these  matters  in  public.  Lenin's  own  methods  are  more 
secretive.  He  believes  that  the  all-powerful  Communist 
Party,  aided  by  the  Red  Terror  and  the  Extraordinary 
Commission,  can  secure  the  "election"  of  "trade  union" 
officials  by  the  methods  hitherto  employed.  What  these 
methods  are  we  can  see  from  a  passage  already  quoted : 

"We  must  know  how  to  apply,  at  need,  knavery,  deceit, 
illegal  methods,  hiding  truth  by  silence,  in  order  to 
penetrate  the  very  heart  of  the  trade  unions,  to  remain 
there  and  to  accomplish  there  the  Communist  task. 
(Lenin,  in  "Radicalism,  the  Infantile  Malady  of  Com- 
munism. ' ' ) 

Lenin's  "trade  union"  program,  as  he  declared  at 
the  above  meeting,  is  that  the  unions  should  be  "per- 


PERSECUTION  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR      97 

suaded"  to  institute  tribunals  in  order  to  increase 
production  for  the  Soviet  Government  and  punish 
"labor  desertion."  (See  the  previous  chapter.) 

Of  course,  the  "trade  union"  revolt  could  not  amount 
to  much  under  the  Bolshevist  rule.  Two  factions,  how- 
ever, offered  a  very  vigorous  resistance  and  under  the 
Soviet  tyranny  it  is  significant  that  they  did  manage, 
after  all,  to  obtain  a  certain  number  of  votes.  This 
opposition  is  divided  between  the  faction  which  proposed 
to  restore  the  Soviet  rule  and  a  so-called  Syndicalist 
faction.  Neither  of  them  suggests  any  concession  what- 
ever to  the  peasant  majority  of  Russia,  but  both  seem 
fairly  strongly  opposed  to  a  continuation  of  the  present 
Communist  Party  rule.  The  New  Statesman  correctly 
sums  up  the  opposition  of  these  factions  as  follows : 

If  we  consider  Trotzky's  militarist-bureaucratic  pro- 
posals as  the  extreme  left,  then  the  extreme  right  is 
taken  up  by  the  group  of  the  "Labor  Opposition," 
headed  by  Shliapnikov — chairman  of  the  Metal  Workers' 
Union — the  strongest  Russian  union. 

The  "Labor  Opposition"  demands  that  the  entire 
economy  of  the  Republic  should  be  taken  over  by  a 
congress  of  producers,  organized  in  producers'  unions. 
This  is  a  consistent  syndicalist  conception,  based  on  the 
belief  that  economic  matters  should  be  left  entirely  to 
labor  organizations. 

Bitterly  criticizing  the  bureaucratic  tutelage  over  the 
unions  by  the  Communist  party,  the  "Labor  Opposi- 
tion" advocates  complete  self-government  in  the  fac- 
tories. 

Another  faction,  headed  by  Ossinsky  and  Sapronov, 
calls  itself  the  group  of  "Democratic  Centralism."  This 
group  is  one  with  the  "Labor  Opposition"  in  demanding 
democratic  reforms  and  active  participation  of  the 


98  OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

unions  in  the  management  of  industry,  but  is  dead 
against  the  syndicalist  conception  of  the  Metal  Workers' 
Union.  Their  chief  demand  is  for  the  re-establishment 
of  the  Soviet  Constitution. 

The  official  Lenin  resolution  received  336  votes  at  the 
conference,  Trotzky's  resolution  50,  and  that  of  the  Labor 
Opposition  18. 

What  was  the  result  of  this  conference?  Far  from 
bringing  any  relaxation  of  the  Communist  dictatorship 
it  resulted  in  putting  at  the  head  of  the  railroads  the 
one  man  in  Russia  who  is  noted  as  more  violent  than 
Trotzky  himself,  namely,  Lenin's  right  arm,  Djerjinsky, 
chief  of  the  frightful  Extraordinary  Commission.  Such 
is  labor  reform  and  ' '  democratization ' '  in  Soviet  Russia ! 
As  we  read  in  a  dispatch  of  April  19,  1920 : 

President  Djerjinsky  of  the  All-Russian  Extraordinary 
Commission  of  the  People's  Commissary  of  the  Interior, 
who  is  also  Chairman  of  the  Extraordinary  Commission 
for  the  Improvement  of  Conditions  of  Life  of  the 
Workers,  Chairman  of  the  Extraordinary  Commission 
for  the  Care  of  Children  and  of  several  other  extraor- 
dinary commissions,  has  been  appointed  People's  Com- 
missary of  Transport  and  Communications.  The  present 
Commissary,  M.  Emshanoff,  becomes  Under  Secretary. 

The  decree  of  the  Central  Executive  Committee  ex- 
plicitly announces  that  Djerjinsky  will  maintain  all  his 
other  positions,  thus  becoming  still  more  powerful.  Dur- 
ing the  recent  animated  discussion  of  the  position  of 
the  trade  unions,  Trotzky  was  severely  criticized  for 
introducing  military  methods  into  the  management  of 
the  railways.  Trotzky  was  obliged  to  retire  as  Com- 
missary of  Transport  and  Emshanoff  returned  to  the 
normal  methods  of  management  only  to  give  way  in  a 


PERSECUTION  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR      99 

few  weeks   to  Djerjinsky,  who  will  introduce  on  the 
railways  the  methods  of  the  Extraordinary  Commission. 

No  better  illustration  of  the  Bolshevist  policy  towards 
labor  unions  could  be  offered  than  the  picture  given  in 
the  appeal  to  the  labor  world  sent  out  towards  the  end 
of  1920  by  the  Moscow  Printers'  Union.  We  reproduce 
it  here  in  full,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  irrelevant 
sentences : 

Appeal  of  Moscow  Printers'  Union 

The  Printers '  Union  of  Moscow  is  the  last  trade  union 
organization  that  has  remained  faithful  to  the  principles 
of  the  independence  of  the  trade  unions  and  their 
separate  existence  as  a  class  organization. 

The  Moscow  Printers'  Union  defends  these  principles 
because  a  trade  union  organization  can  neither  subject 
itself  to  nor  permit  itself  to  be  absorbed  by  the  organs 
of  the  government  under  the  conditions  now  existing 
when  private  property  is  not  abolished,  when  the  state 
is  the  largest  if  not  the  only  entrepreneur,  when  the 
purchase  and  sale  of  labor  power  is  completely  conserved 
— in  a  word,  when  labor's  independent  and  free  organs 
of  defense  and  protection  from  the  pressure  of  the  other 
classes  are  indispensable. 

In  the  domain  of  labor  policy  the  practice  of  the 
Soviet  government  during  the  three  years  of  its  existence 
presents  a  striking  example  of  this  idea. 

The  Moscow  Printers'  Union  believes  that  it  is  ab- 
solutely necessary  to  carry  on  a  campaign  of  discussion 
amongst  the  proletariat  against  the  political,  economic, 
and  administrative  monstrosities  practiced  by  the  party 
in  power. 

For  taking  this  position,  for  conducting  this  battle 
of  principles,  the  Communists  hate  the  printers  in  a 
manner  surpassing  even  their  hatred  for  the  bourgeoisie 
and  the  landlords,  at  present  non-existent  in  Russia. 


100         OUT   OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

The  Communists  extend  one  hand  to  such  counter- 
revolutionary leaders  as  Broussiloff  and  Goutor,  the 
Czar's  chief  generals,  and  with  the  other  hand,  loaded 
with  all  sorts  of  extraordinary  laws  against  the  socialists, 
they  oppress  with  all  their  power  a  group  of  proletarians 
whose  sole  crime  is  that  they  have  had  the  hardihood 
to  refuse  to  accept  the  Communist  maxims,  presented 
to  them  ready-made  by  the  party  in  power. 

The  fearlessness  of  this  group,  of  proletarians  reached 
an  insupportable  point  for  the  masters  of  the  situation 
when  the  representatives  of  the  English  workers  came 
to  Russia.  On  this  occasion  the  printers  organized  a 
meeting  in  which  hymns  of  praise  in  honor  of  the  Com- 
munist party  were  not  heard  but  where,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  truth  respecting  actual  conditions  in  Soviet 
Eussia  was  openly  proclaimed. 

The  Communists,  outraged  by  this  meeting,  imme- 
diately began  to  persecute  the  printers.  They  shrank 
from  no  lie  and  no  calumny  in  the  attainment  of  their 
purpose,  which  was  to  manufacture  a  false  public  opinion 
preparatory  to  the  vigorous  punishment  they  had  de- 
termined to  inflict  on  the  Printers'  Union. 

It  was  not  difficult  for  the  Communists  to  administer 
this  punishment,  for  the  printers,  like  all  the  other 
Eussian  workers,  are  deprived  of  the  possibility  of  print- 
ing everything  that  displeases  the  Communists.  For 
having  printed  the  resolution  adopted  by  the  mass  meet- 
ing in  honor  of  the  English  comrades,  Comrade  Zav- 
charoff  was  arrested.  The  Printers'  Union  was  inter- 
dicted from  printing  the  stenographic  report  of  the 
meeting.  The  independent  unions  were  also  deprived 
of  their  own  papers. 

The  Communists  decided  to  punish  the  printers 
severely,  especially  because  it  was  impossible  for  them 
to  oppose  the  opinion  of  the  workers  in  other  industrial 
branches  to  the  opinions  held  by  the  printers.  The  party 
in  power  would  without  doubt  have  met  with  defeat 
in  a  free  assembly  where  the  two  points  of  view — that 


of  the  Communists  and  that  of  the  opposition — were 
given  a  fair  field  of  contest.  It  was  for  this  reason  that 
the  party  in  power  was  compelled  to  have  recourse  to 
meetings  under  the  auspices  of  dissimilar  organizations 
which  were  nothing  but  self-styled  representatives  of 
the  proletariat;  real  representation  has  not  existed  in 
Kussia  for  a  long  time.  At  these  meetings  the  speakers 
fulminated  against  the  printers.  In  this  manner  the 
" General  conference"  of  the  printers  of  Petrograd  was 
organized  and  "unanimously"  adopted  a  withering 
resolution  against  the  Muscovite  printers. 

The  value  of  the  "unanimity"  of  the  organized 
conferences,  during  which,  under  the  menace  of  terrible 
reprisals,  the  representatives  of  the  proletarian  opposi- 
tion are  deprived  of  the  possibility  of  telling  the  truth, 
is  well  known  to  every  Russian  worker.  For  this  reason 
the  government  journals  lodged  the  senseless  and  stupid 
charge  of  fomenting  strikes  against  the  Printers'  Union. 
The  printers  have  struck  less  than  any  other  group  of 
workers  in  Russia,  thanks  to  their  firm  and  solid  organ- 
ization. The  workers  in  many  other  branches  of  indus- 
try, on  the  contrary,  driven  by  despair,  have  declared 
numerous  strikes.  They  saw  no  other  way  to  improve 
their  conditions.  These  conditions  drove  the  majority 
of  the  Muscovite  printers  to  the  same  extremity,  but 
the  movement  was  usually  arrested  by  the  officials  of 
the  Printers'  Union. 

For  more  than  a  month  the  Communists  fashioned 
public  opinion  with  the  aid  of  their  monopoly.  They 
lied  and  calumniated  without  shame.  Finally  during 
the  night  of  June  17,  they  arrested  all  the  members 
of  the  administrative  committee  of  the  Printers'  Union 
and  all  other  officials  of  the  union  holding  important 
positions  with  the  exception  of  those  who  had  the  time 
to  hide  themselves.  On  the  morning  of  June  18  the 
offices  of  the  union  were  occupied  by  a  detachment  of 
government  troops,  and  everyone  who  for  any  reason 
whatsover  had  displeased  the  Communists  was  arrested. 


102         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

In  the  meantime  the  private  lodgings  of  the  employees 
of  the  union  were  searched. 

This  new  act  of  violence  against  the  working  class 
aroused  the  indignation  of  all  the  printers  in  Moscow. 
They  understood  perfectly  that  the  administrative  coun- 
cil represented  the  executive  organ  of  all  the  members 
of  the  union,  especially  because  it  was  elected,  contrary 
to  the  councils  of  all  the  other  trade  unions  and  the 
organs  of  the  government,  by  universal  suffrage. 

Some  of  the  workers  struck  and  demanded  the  release 
of  the  imprisoned  trade  unionists.  The  masters  of  the 
situation  employed  against  the  strikers  the  same  measures 
that  the  bouregoisie  in  every  country  would  like  to  apply 
but  have  never  dared  to.  The  strikers  were  deprived 
of  food.  Under  present  conditions,  when  the  workers 
are  underfed,  this  was  the  most  rigorous  weapon  that 
could  be  used.  At  the  same  time  the  government  placed 
under  arrest  the  alleged  strike  leaders.  These  two  meas- 
ures attained  the  end  desired  by  the  government:  the 
strikers  went  back  to  work,  and  perhaps,  under  the  pres- 
sure of  similar  measures,  they  will  soon  be  even  forced 
to  vote  resolutions  condemning  the  men  who  up  to  the 
present  have  been  their  leaders.  But  the  hatred  of  the 
Moscow  printers  for  the  authors  of  this  shameless  punish- 
ment will  not  be  lessened  thereby;  on  the  contrary,  it 
will  increase  day  by  day,  and  a  small  amount  of  free 
atmosphere  would  suffice  to  chase  the  inquisitors  away 
from  the  printers. 

In  addressing  themselves  to  the  international  labor 
movement,  the  striking  printers  declare  that,  crushed 
by  brutal  physical  force,  they  appeal  to  the  only  force 
which  still  preserves  for  them  a  moral  significance,  the 
moral  power  of  the  international  labor  movement.  The 
striking  printers  assert  that  they  can  demonstrate  to 
the  international  labor  movement  that  they  are  right 
and  not  the  Communists. 

The  striking  printers  declare  that  the  new  adminis- 
.trative  council  of  the  Printers'  Union,  which  has  been 


PERSECUTION  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR    103 

superimposed  upon  them  by  force,  has  no  influence  and 
no  authority  over  the  great  mass  of  the  workers,  whose 
entire  sympathy  and  friendship,  on  the  contrary,  are 
with  those  who  are  in  prison,  the  former  officials  of  the 
Printers'  Union  of  Moscow. 

Perhaps  the  Bolshevist  government  will  institute  a 
prosecution  similar  to  the  Beillis  prosecution  so  notorious 
under  the  Czarist  regime,  but  the  only  possible  judges 
at  present  are  the  Moscow  printers  and  the  international 
socialist  movement. 

A  judgment  rendered  by  the  Communist  party  would 
be  nothing  but  a  judgment  of  an  interested  party,  of 
an  adversary  who  plays  the  role  of  a  judge  in  a  case 
involving  his  political  enemies. 
So  much  the  worse  for  them. 

But  the  socialist  and  labor  international  will  under- 
stand ! 

The  entire  working  class  of  Russia  believes  in  the  Mos- 
cow printers !  , 

(Signed)  THE  MEMBERS  OF  THE  ADMINIS- 
TRATIVE COUNCIL  OF  THE 
PRINTERS'  UNION  OF  Mos- 
cow. (ELECTED  BY  UNIVER- 
SAL SUFFRAGE,) 


vn 


THE   OPPRESSION   OF   THE   AGRICULTURAL 
POPULATION 

Now  that  Soviet  Russia  has  been  cut  off  from  Poland 
and  other  industrial  districts  fully  90  per  cent  of  the 
population  is  agricultural.  The  oppression  of  the 
agricultural  population  by  the  Communists  and  the  Red 
Army  has  been  even  more  frightful  than  the  persecution 
of  labor  and  its  political  and  economic  organizations. 
The  Bolshevists  have  acted  towards  the  agriculturist 
majority  in  Russia  as  towards  a  conquered  people,  and 
expressions  acknowledging  this  relation  are  frequent 
throughout  Bolshevist  official  publications.  For  example, 
in  Losovsky's  official  pamphlet  on  the  new  Red  Trade 
Union  Internationale  (the  so-called  International  Coun- 
cil of  Trade  and  Industrial  Unions)  he  refers  to  the 
establishment  of  the  Bolshevist  rule  as  "the  subjection 
of  the  peasants  and  petty  bourgeoisie  by  the  prole- 
tariat." In  a  speech  quoted  in  Soviet  Russia  in  1920 
Lenin  says: 

The  petty  bourgeois  class  in  Russia  was  undoubtedly 
in  the  majority.  The  peasantry  remained  in  their  pro- 
duction as  property  owners  and  are  creating  new  capi- 
talistic relations.  These  are  the  fundamental  traits  of 
our  economic  situation,  and  hence  originates  the  unwise 
talk  of  equality,  freedom  and  democracy  by  those  who 
do  not  understand  the  actual  situation. 

104 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  POPULATION       105 

There  is  no  harmony  between  the  interests  of  the 
proletariat  and  the  peasantry.  Here  the  difficulty  starts 
for  us. 

Already  then  there  was  apparent  the  necessity  of  in- 
dividual administration,  of  recognition  of  the  dictatorial 
plenary  powers  of  one  person  for  the  carrying  out  of 
the  Soviet  idea ;  therefore  all  manner  of  talk  about  equal 
rights  is  nonsense.  We  conduct  the  class  struggle  not 
on  the  basis  of  equal  rights.  The  proletariat  wins  be- 
cause it  consists  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  disciplined 
men,  who  are  animated  by  a  uniform  will. 

The  exact  meaning  of  "the  dictatorship  of  the  pro- 
letariat" was  never  stated  in  a  more  uncompromising 
form  than  in  Lenin's  celebrated  speech  at  the  Commu- 
nist Party  Congress  (March,  1921) — a  speech  heralded 
throughout  the  world  by  all  advocates  of  friendly  rela- 
tions with  the  Soviets,  as  the  supreme  evidence  of 
compromise  with  capitalism  and  surrender  to  the  peas- 
antry !  We  quote  a  few  sentences  as  given  by  the  official 
Russian  Press  Review  of  March  15th. 

We  regard  all  these  events  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  class  struggle.  We  are  not  mistaken  with  regard  to 
the  relations  between  the  proletariat  and  the  petty  bour- 
geoisie— a  most  difficult  question,  which  demands  com- 
plicated measures  in  order  to  secure  the  victory  of  the 
proletariat,  or  to  be  more  correct,  a  whole  system  of 
complicated  transitional  measures.  .  .  . 

What  is  the  meaning  of  the  slogan  of  "free  trade" 
advanced  by  the  petty-bourgeois  elements  ?  It  shows  that 
there  are  some  difficulties  in  the  relations  between  the 
proletariat  and  the  small  farmer  which  we  have  not  yet 
overcome.  I  refer  to  the  attitude  of  the  proletariat  to 
the  small  property-holders  in  a  country  where  the  pro- 
letariat has  been  victorious  and  the  proletarian  revolu- 


106         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

tion  is  developing  but  where  the  proletarian  makes  up 
the  minority  of  the  population  and  the  majority  is  made 
up  of  petty-bourgeois  elements.  In  such  a  country  the 
proletariat  must  lead  the  transition  of  these  petty  prop- 
erty holders  into  collective  and  communist  labor.  This 
is  theoretically  beyond  any  dispute,  and  on  this  we  based 
a  number  of  our  legislative  acts. 

The  feature  which  is  peculiar  to  Russia  in  the  highest 
degree  is  that  we  have  here  a  proletariat  making  up  the 
minority  and  a  considerable  minority  at  that,  of  the 
population,  while  the  overwhelming  majority  consists 
of  the  peasantry. 

That  is,  the  class-struggle  still  continues  in  the  shape 
of  a  class-war  between  the  industrial  proletariat  and  the 
agricultural  population  or  peasants,  regarded  as  petty 
bourgeois.  The  proletariat  are  the  victors  in  this  war 
in  so  far  as  they  have  conquered  the  peasants  and  cap- 
tured the  government.  But  the  war  continues  because 
the  peasant  subjects  of  the  proletariat  are  the  over- 
whelming majority.  These  peasants  must  continue  to 
be  excluded  from  all  power,  but  they  must  be  handed 
down  such  economic  advantages  as  are  consistent  with  a 
continued  proletarian  dictatorship.  And  in  the  mean- 
while they  must  be  terrorized  by  frightful  punishments 
against  attempting  to  set  up  a  regime  of  self-government 
— as  Chapter  IV  amply  demonstrates. 

The  agriculturists  are  so  few  in  the  Communist  Party 
that  they  are  not  usually  even  listed  in  the  Party  sta- 
tistics. The  figures  quoted  above  will  show  that  they 
do  not  number  more  than  two  or  three  per  cent  of  that 
party,  that  is,  not  one  agriculturist  in  10,000  is  repre- 
sented in  the  organization  that  governs  Russia! 

Having  counted  out  the  agriculturist  majority  com- 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  POPULATION       107 

pletely  as  factors  in  the  Government  and  having  assigned 
certain  theoretical  and  "proletarian"  reasons  for  this 
policy  the  Communists  and  Bolshevists  in  all  countries 
have  proceeded  to  justify  themselves  by  the  worst  cam- 
paign of  vilification  that  has  ever  been  directed  against 
any  great  people.  The  Russian  agriculturists  or  peasants 
are  described  by  the  Bolshevists  and  pro-Bolshevist 
"liberals,"  such  as  H.  G. "Wells,  Brailsford,  andBertrand 
Russell,  as  if  they  were  almost  savages,  preferring 
retrogession  to  progress  in  their  own  business  of  agricul- 
ture, illiterate,  violent,  repudiating  all  urban  industry 
and  all  government.  There  is  no  foundation  whatever 
for  these  malicious  slanders  against  this  great  people. 
The  Russian  peasants  agriculturally  are  more  advanced 
than  the  majority  of  the  agriculturists  of  southern  and 
eastern  Europe.  Far  from  being  totally  illiterate  a  large 
proportion  of  the  male  population,  often  estimated  at 
one-half,  are  literate.  Their  great  desire,  like  that  of 
other  agriculturists,  is  for  better  tools,  better  stock,  more 
farm  machinery  and  better  transportation  facilities,  and 
they  have  shown  themselves  willing  and  anxious  to  make 
heavy  sacrifice  for  these  objects.  They  proved  their 
political  intelligence  by  electing  a  solid  delegation  of 
intelligent  progressives  to  all  the  Dumas  under  the  Czar 
and  to  the  Constitutional  Assembly  forcibly  dissolved 
by  the  Bolshevists.  Far  from  displaying  hostility  to  the 
town  population  they  even  have  adopted  in  a  vague  way 
in  the  latter 's  aspirations  towards  a  moderate  form  of 
state  socialism.  But  during  the  Bolshevist  regime  they 
have  got  nothing  from  the  cities  except  Red  Army  de- 
tachments which  have  robbed  them  of  everything  loose 
on  their  little  farms,  killed  them  in  large  numbers  and 


108         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

carried  away  their  men  as  conscripts  for  the  Bolshevist 
military  adventures  in  Poland,  Siberia,  the  Caucasus 
and  other  far  away  sections. 

To  Bertrand  Russell  Lenin  said:  "Nothing  will  do 
any  good  except  arming  the  proletariat  (that  is,  that 
part  of  the  proletariat  considered  reliable  by  the  Com- 
munists). Those  who  believe  anything  else  are  social 
traitors  or  deluded  fools."  Asked  by  the  Norwegian 
Socialist  visitor,  Friss,  "Do  you  intend  then  to  use  the 
Red  Army  against  the  internal  enemy  ?"  Lenin  replied: 
"Yes,  of  course.  What  the  peasants  call  a  divine  right 
we  call  high  treason." 

Again  when  referring  to  the  plunder  of  the  peasantry 
before  the  British  Labor  Delegation  Lenin  laughingly 
replied  that  they  were  being  paid  for  what  was  being 
taken  in  worthless  paper  money.  As  quoted  by  Haden 
Guest  of  that  delegation  Lenin  was  not  ashamed:  "The 
peasant,"  he  explained,  "is  a  small  capitalist.  There- 
fore, the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  means  the  gov- 
ernment of  Russia  by  the  towns.  We  do  not  recognize 
equality  between  the  peasant  (that  is,  the  agriculturist) 
and  the  town  worker." 

The  Bolshevists  have  given  various  names  from  time 
to  time  for  this  looting  of  the  countryside  by  the  Red 
Army.  The  usual  name  has  been  "taxation  in  kind." 
As  Trotzky  declared  in  certain  of  his  "theses"  (Pravda, 
December  17,  1919) :  "the  obtaining  of  goods  from  the 
country  will  inevitably  be  considered  by  the  more  pros- 
perous elements  of  the  peasant  class  as  a  State  tax  in 
kind.  The  methodical  and  regular  payment  of  such  a 
tax  can  be  assured  only  by  coercion  on  the  part  of  the 
State."  Not  only  did  the  peasants  so  regard  these 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  POPULATION       109 

requisitions  but  the  Soviet  Government  itself  at  first 
gave  them  this  name,  as  we  may  see  from  a  passage  in 
Soviet  Russia  of  February  28,  1920 : 

Beginning  with  November,  1918,  to  this  old  system 
there  were  added  on  two  taxes  of  a  purely  revolutionary 
character  which  stand  out  apart  within  the  partly  out- 
grown system  "taxes  in  kind"  (decree  of  October  30, 
1918),  and  "extraordinary  taxes"  (November  2,  1918). 

Both  decrees  have  been  described  as  follows  by  Com- 
rade Krestinsky,  Commissary  of  the  Finance,  at  the  May 
session  of  the  financial  sub-divisions: 

"These  are  decrees  of  a  different  order,  the  only  thing 
they  have  in  common  is  that  they  both  bear  a  class 
character  and  that  each  provides  for  the  tax  to  increase 
in  direct  proportion  with  the  amount  of  property  which 
the  taxpayer  possesses,  that  the  poor  are  completely 
free  from  both  taxes,  and  the  lower  middle  class  pays 
them  in  a  smaller  proportion. 

"The  extraordinary  tax  aims  at  the  savings  which 
remained  in  the  hands  of  the  urban  and  larger  rural 
bourgeoisie,  from  former  times.  Insofar  as  it  is  directed 
at  noij-labor  savings  it  cannot  be  levied  "more  than  once. 

"As  regards  the  taxes  in  kind,  borrowing  Comrade 
Krestinsky 's  expression,  'it  will  remain  in  force  during 
the  period  of  transition  to  the  Communist  order  until 
the  village  will  from  practical  experience  realize  the 
advantage  of  rural  economy  on  a  large  scale  compared 
with  the  small  farming  estate,  and  will  of  its  own  accord, 
without  compulsion,  en  masse  adopt  the  communist 
method  of  land  cultivation.'  " 

Krestinsky 's  claim  that  this  intended  gradual  transi- 
tion to  agricultural  communism  is  not  to  be  compulsory 
will  deceive  no  one.  He  himself  classes  it  with  the  other 
revolutionary  tax  which  is  specifically  designed  to  de- 


110         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

stroy  the  larger  bourgeois  of  both  town  and  country  so 
completely  that  it  can  be  levied  only  once. 

Trotzky  is  also  right  about  the  coercion.  There  has 
certainly  been  nothing  voluntary  about  the  payment  of 
this  "tax  in  kind." 

Up  to  April  1,  1919,  the  Military  Supply  Bureau 
(from  Petrograd  alone)  sent  255  military  requisitioning 
detachments  to  various  provinces.  (The  Northern  Com- 
mune, No.  73,  September  4,  1919.) 

According  to  the  report  presented  to  the  Moscow  Con- 
ference of  Soviets  30,000  men  had  been  sent  in  the 
course  of  a  short  period,  but  the  majority  of  them  were 
incapable  of  performing  their  task,  while  others  were 
themselves  gross  speculators.  (The  Moscow  Pravda, 
No.  105,  July  4,  1919.) 

An  atmosphere  of  aggression,  espionage  and  bloody 
strife  permeated  the  villages,  coupled  with  an  uncer- 
tainty as  to  the  results  of  agricultural  labor.  The  situa- 
tion is  best  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  out  of  the  36,500 
men  forming  the  total  of  the  food  requisitioning  detach- 
ments during  the  period  from  June  to  December,  1918, 
7,309,  i.e.,  20  per  cent.,  were  killed  and  wounded  by 
the  peasants  while  "collecting  the  grain."  (Izvestia 
of  the  Food  Commissariat  for  December,  1918.) 

From  the  very  first  and  while  all  of  these  activities 
were  going  on,  Lenin  continued  his  usual  policy  of 
applying  plausible  phrases  to  the  Bolshevist  practices. 
At  the  Communist  Party  Congress  in  March,  1919,  he 
declared : 

From  the  task  of  suppressing  the  bourgeoisie  we  must 
now  transfer  our  attention  to  the  task  of  building  up 
the  life  of  the  middle  peasantry.  We  must  live  with 
the  middle  peasantry  in  peace.  The  middle  peasantry 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  POPULATION       111 

in  a  communistic  society  will  be  on  our  side  only  if  we 
lighten  and  improve  its  economic  conditions.  .  .  . 

The  middle  peasant  is  very  practical  and  values  only 
actual  assistance,  quite  carelessly  thrusting  aside  all  com- 
mands and  instructions  from  above. 

First  help  him  and  then  you  will  secure  his  confidence. 
If  this  matter  is  handled  correctly,  if  each  step  taken 
by  our  group  in  the  village,  in  the  canton,  in  the  food- 
supply  detachment,  or  in  any  organization,  is  carefully 
made,  is  carefully  verified  from  this  point  of  view,  then 
we  shall  win  the  confidence  of  the  peasant,  and  only 
then  shall  we  be  able  to  move  forward.  Now  we  must 
give  him  assistance.  We  must  give  him  advice  and  this 
must  not  be  the  order  of  a  commanding  officer,  but  the 
advice  of  a  comrade.  The  peasant  then  will  be  absolutely 
for  us. 

The  measures  previously  described  are,  evidently,  ex- 
amples of  "comradely  advice"  and  "actual  assistance." 

Under  these  methods  the  peasants  hid  their  products 
and  sowed  less  grain  in  order  that  there  should  be  noth- 
ing left  for  the  plunderers.  It  was  then  that  the  Soviets 
decided  to  put  still  more  terror  into  their  actions  and 
to  give  their  requisitions  a  new  name.  In  order  to  be 
able  to  seize  plausibly  all  grain  under  all  circumstances 
they  declared  grain  and  certain  other  food  products 
the  monopoly  of  the  state.  They  decreed  that  the 
peasants  should  be  left  only  enough  to  supply  their  own 
families  with  food  and  that  all  the  "surplus"  should  go 
to  the  Soviet  Government. 

Instead  of  making  things  better  the  new  method  made 
matters  worse.  Bolshevist  statistics  in  1920  admitted 
that  the  agricultural  productivity  of  the  country  had 
fallen  to  fifty  per  cent  or  less.  The  area  under  cultiva- 
tion had  fallen  to  about  seventy  per  cent.  The  yield  as 


112         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

the  result  of  bad  seeds,  the  lack  of  manure,  agricultural 
implements  and  horses  (taken  by  the  Soviet  armies), 
as  well  as  poor  and  negligent  methods  of  cultivation 
(partly  voluntary)  had  also  fallen  so  as  to  reduce  the 
crop  to  less  than  fifty  per  cent. 

The  following  description  of  the  agricultural  position 
in  Russia  was  given  in  one  of  the  reports  read  at  a  meet- 
ing in  Moscow  on  February  22,  and  printed  in  the 
Economic  Life  of  February  24  (1921) : 

The  present  position  of  agriculture  is  such  that  the 
sowing  area  is  one-third  less  than  in  pre-war  years.  The 
yield  has  decreased  by  45  per  cent.  In  former  years 
the  export  of  grain  amounted  to  700,000,000  poods,  but 
in  1918  there  was  already  a  deficit  in  the  crops  amount- 
ing to  about  1,000,000,000  poods.  The  peasantry,  con- 
stituting 85  per  cent,  of  the  population,  is  no  longer  a 
producer,  but  a  consumer.  Not  finding  the  necessary 
commodities  he  wants  on  the  markets,  the  peasant  re- 
duced his  produce  to  the  minimum  of  his  personal  needs. 

Alarmed  at  such  figures  and  at  the  prospect  of  a 
greater  and  more  rapid  agricultural  decay  and  food 
shortage  the  Soviet  Congress  in  December,  1920,  decided 
upon  still  more  violent  persecution  of  the  peasantry. 
The  new  situation  is  thus  summed  up  by  a  friendly 
correspondent,  Michael  Farbman: 

The  threatening  famine  and  its  causes  should  obviously 
have  led  to  an  immediate  loosening  of  the  screws  and 
a  change  of  policy,  yet  the  opposite  took  place.  In  fact, 
the  Food  Department  published  a  programme  of  grain 
requisitions  almost  twice  as  big  as  that  obtained  in  the 
previous  year,  while  Ossinsky,  who  frankly  admitted  the 
peasants'  refusal  to  cultivate  their  land,  outlined  a  most 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  POPULATION       113 

fantastic  scheme  of  compelling  them  to  do  so.  He  was 
not  in  the  least  alarmed  by  the  crisis,  but  frankly  ex- 
pressed satisfaction  that  the  terrible  miscarriage  of 
previous  schemes  for  socializing  agriculture  and  the  ob- 
stinate refusal  of  the  peasants  to  fall  into  line  justified 
the  state  in  intervening. 

Unfortunately,  Ossinsky's  ideas  aroused  the  sympathy 
of  the  heads  of  the  Food  Administration,  who  were  sure 
their  enormous  programme  of  food  requisitioning  during 
this  famine  year  would  fail  unless  they  were  permitted 
to  apply  more  force  than  usual.  In  a  few  weeks  Ossinsky 
and  the  Food  Administration  were  able  to  convince  the 
Communist  Party  that  this  new  scheme  was  a  necessity. 
The  All-Russian  Congress  of  Soviets  last  December  sanc- 
tioned Ossinsky's  ideas,  adopting  a  decree  "In  Aid  of 
Agriculture."  The  main  provisions  of  this  embodied 
the  scheme  of  compulsory  sowing  of  the  fields  and  estab- 
lished seed  funds. 


The  giving  to  this  decree  the  title  "In  Aid  of  Agricul- 
ture" is  typical.  Lenin  also  repeated  his  beneficent 
phrases  at  this  Congress:  "We  shall  not  advance  a  step 
in  our  program  without  the  peasants,"  and  he  again 
said  that  the  law  should  "assist"  peasant  farming. 

By  March  the  food  reserve  was  almost  completely 
exhausted,  the  prospects  for  agriculture  were  still  worse, 
and  the  peasant  revolts,  especially  in  the  grain  produc- 
ing districts,  South  Russia,  Siberia  and  the  Caucasus, 
were  more  frequent  and  menacing  than  ever  before.  The 
Communists,  led  by  Lenin,  now  decided  once  more  to 
change  the  name  of  their  requisitions,  reverting  from  the 
"grain  monoply"  back  to  "taxation  in  kind."  The 
Moscow  wireless  of  March  16,  1921,  thus  reports  Lenin's 
speech  indicating  this  second  change  in  method: 


114         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

We  can  satisfy  the  small  farmer  in  two  ways.  He 
must  first  of  all  be  allowed  a  certain  liberty  in  effecting 
exchange,  and  secondly,  we  must  obtain  goods  and  sup- 
plies. Should  we  be  able  to  obtain  a  certain  amount 
of  goods  which  the  State  could  use  for  purposes  of 
exchange,  we  [i.e.  the  Communist  Party]  as  a  State 
would  add  economic  power  to  our  political  power.  Ex- 
perience will  show  us  how  a  certain  freedom  in  local 
exchange  is  possible,  not  only  without  destroying,  but 
in  fact  strengthening  the  political  power  of  the  pro- 
letariat. 

We  shall  be  able  to  obtain  a  certain  part  of  the  goods 
we  require  from  abroad.  If  the  goods  are  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  State  then  the  power  of  the  latter  in- 
creases. Economically  we  must  satisfy  the  middle 
peasant  and  agree  to  the  freedom  [ !]  of  exchange  in 
order  to  keep  power  more  firmly  in  the  hands  of  the 
proletariat. 

It  will  be  noted  that  Lenin  reassured  the  Communists 
that  no  concession  whatever  was  to  be  made  in  the  direc- 
tion of  democracy  or  towards  giving  the  peasant  majority 
any  voice  whatever  over  their  own  affairs.  Indeed  in 
a  speech  which  was  made  to  the  railway  men  at  Moscow 
after  the  enactment  of  the  new  legislation,  reported  by 
the  wireless  on  April  3,  Lenin  made  this  doubly  clear: 

As  far  as  I  personally  am  concerned,  I  know  only  too 
well  how  badly  organized  are  the  Russian  peasants,  how 
little  class  consciousness  they  have.  In  such  circum- 
stances they  do  not  represent  a  serious  menace  to  the 
dictatorship  of  the  proletariat.  Therefore,  we  must  by 
all  means  strive  to  attain  union  with  the  peasantry  and 
meet  them  half  with  regard  to  their  justifiable  demands.  . 

Again  we  have  fair  phrases  with  no  real  change  in 
the  peasants'  economic  condition: 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  POPULATION       115 

After  hearing  Lenin's  report,  the  March  Congress 
passed  the  following  resolution: 

(1)  In  order  to  ensure  the  correct  and  unhindered 
working  of  farms  on  a  basis  of  allowing  the  owner  greater 
liberty  in  the  use  of  his  economic  resources,  in  order 
to  strengthen  peasant  farms  and  increase  their  output 
and  also  in  order  to  accurately  estimate  the  duties  to- 
wards the  State  which  must  be  carried  out  by  the  land- 
owners, the  levy  as  a  means  of  supplying  the  State  with 
food  stuffs,  raw  materials  and  fodder  is  replaced  by 
taxation  in  kind. 

(2)  This  tax  must  be  less  than  the  quantity  at  present 
demanded   in    accordance   with   the    State   levy.      The 
amount  of  the  tax  must   be  estimated  to   cover  the 
minimum  requirements  of  the  Army,  the  town  workers 
and  the  agricultural  workers.    The  total  amount  of  the 
tax  must  be  gradually  decreased  as  the  restoration  of 
transport  and  industry  enables  Soviet  authority  to  ob- 
tain agricultural  products  by  normal  means  by  exchang- 
ing articles  produced  by  factories,  works  and  peasant 
craft  industries  for  same. 

(3)  The  tax  will  be  levied  in  the  form  of  a  percentage 
of  the  produce  of  the  farms,  taking  into  consideration 
the  harvest,  the  number  of  consumers  on  the  farm  and 
the  actual  quantities  of  live  stock. 

(5)  The  law  regarding  taxation  in  kind  must  be  drawn 
up  in  such  a  way  and  published  by  such  a  time  as  will 
enable  farmers  to  accurately  ascertain  the  amount  of 
taxation  which  will  fall  to  their  share  before  the  begin- 
ning of  spring  work  in  the  fields. 

When  this  law  was  being  put  into  effect  by  the  Cen- 
tral Executive  Committee  of  the  Soviets  the  Moscow 
wireless  of  March  23  reported  a  remark  of  the  president, 
Kalinin,  as  follows: 


116         OUT  OF  THEIR   OWN   MOUTHS 

The  peasant  may  exchange  his  surplus  supplies,  in, 
excess  of  the  tax,  for  manufactured  articles  either  at 
the  local  market  place  or  through  the  co-operative 
societies. 

What  now  had  changed  besides  the  reversion  to  the 
old  name  for  the  forced  requisitions?  What  grain  had 
the  Soviets  taken  before?  There  can  only  be  one  answer 
— all  they  could  practically  obtain.  For  many  reasons 
it  was  desirable  to  leave  the  peasants  enough  food  so 
that  they  could  live  until  the  next  season  and  produce 
a  new  crop.  More  than  that  was  not  left  to  them  because 
of  the  terrible  shortage  in  the  cities.  Now  that  the  crops 
are  less  than  ever  and  the  city  shortage  greater  will 
they  revert  to  any  other  division  of  the  product?  The 
question  only  needs  to  be  asked  to  see  what  the  answer 
must  be. 

An  effort  is  to  be  made,  however,  to  state  in  advance 
how  much  each  peasant  must  pay.  In  those  rare  cases 
where  this  estimate  is  for  any  reason  low  the  peasant 
may  be  able  to  produce  a  slight  surplus  for  trading 
purposes.  He  will  then  be  at  the  mercy  of  the  Soviets, 
which  have  a  monopoly  of  all  Russia's  imports  and 
most  of  her  home  products.  The  peasant  may  be  able 
to  make  some  slight  exchanges  with  village  workshops, 
but  in  the  first  place  this  has  always  been  permitted 
and  besides,  being  without  iron  or  other  raw  materials 
and  without  tools  or  machinery  the  village  workers  can 
produce  little  of  value.  For  the  rest  this  limited  "free 
trade"  must  be  with  the  so-called  "co-operatives"  which 
— since  the  law  abolishing  co-operatives — have  become 
nothing  but  local  branches  of  the  Soviet  Administration. 
These  institutions  have  a  monopoly  of  all  tools  and 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  POPULATION       117 

machinery,  boots,  clothing,  and  everything  in  which  the 
British  Labor  Delegation  found  the  peasants  so  de- 
plorably lacking — so  far  as  these  things  exist  at  all  in 
the  country. 

From  the  side  of  the  population  of  the  small  towns 
there  will  be  a  certain  amount  of  "free  trade"  with 
these  few  lucky  peasants  who  have  a  surplus  above  the 
"taxation  in  kind."  This  trade  has  also  gone  on  stead- 
ily, though  the  Soviets  have  hitherto  branded  it  as 
criminal  "speculation"  and  executed  many  persons 
accordingly. 

Already  the  so-called  "co-operatives"  are  setting  their 
own  prices  for  the  scythes,  sickles,  and  other  imported 
tools  which  have  obtained  such  a  high  value  in  the 
country-side  because  of  their  scarcity.  There  is  no  com- 
petition, the  Government  has  a  monopoly,  and  can  set 
its  own  prices. 

To  call  the  local  governmental  trading  posts  ' '  co-opera- 
tives" because  they  consist  of  remnants  of  the  organization 
of  the  co-operatives  of  the  past  is  the  grossest  deception. 
At  one  time,  and  until  a  year  or  so  ago,  the  co-operatives 
were  the  most  remarkable  native  product  of  the  geniua 
of  the  Russian  people.  Not  only  has  the  Soviet  Govern- 
ment destroyed  them  but  it  has  given  no  indication 
whatever  of  reviving  them  in  the  shape  of  what  the 
rest  of  the  world  calls  "co-operatives."  It  will  be 
recalled  that  the  Soviets  refused  a  large  relief  expedi- 
tion by  the  Entente  powers  for  the  sole  reason  that 
it  was  proposed  to  put  these  supplies  in  the  hands  of 
the  real  co-operatives.  It  was  then — March  20,  1920 — 
that  the  Soviets  dissolved  that  organization.  How  com- 
plete the  work  of  dissolution  was  we  may  see  from  the 


118 

following  resolution  of  the  Commumist  Party,  and  such 
resolutions  invariably  become  the  law  of  the  land: 

To  complete  the  work  which  has  been  begun  by  the 
decree  of  March  20,  and  the  subsequent  activity  of  the 
Party  in  connection  with  obtaining  a  dominating  influ- 
ence for  the  Party  in  every  section  of  the  organisation 
of  Consumers'  Co-operatives. 

For  the  purpose  of  obviating  parallel  activity  of  both 
Co-operative  and  Soviet  Organs  to  establish  a  gradual 
abolition  of  Local  Co-operative  Societies  and  Provincial 
and  Central  Unions  of  all  those  Sections  which  are  of 
a  parallel  and  competitive  nature  with  Soviet  Sections. 
Such  Sections — namely,  Industrial,  Timber,  Agricul- 
tural, Co-operative,  Educational — and  others  are  to  be 
transferred  to  the  corresponding  Government  Depart- 
ments, such  as  the  Supreme  Council  of  Public  Economy, 
the  People's  Commissariat  for  Agriculture  and  so  forth. 

As  regards  the  Agricultural  and  Trading  Co-opera- 
tives, the  Congress  completely  approves  of  the  first  step 
taken  on  the  basis  of  the  decree  of  January  27,  that 
is  to  say,  the  complete  abolition  of  the  existence  of  the 
All-Russian  Agricultural  and  Industrial  Co-operatives 
and  their  amalgamation  with  the  Central  Union  of  which 
they  are  to  become  Sections. 

The  pro-Bolshevist  British  delegate,  Margaret  Bond- 
field,  in  the  report  of  the  British  Labor  Party,  admitted 
that  every  voluntary  element  in  the  co-operatives  had 
been  abolished  and  that  all  citizens  had  been  "decreed" 
as  members.  The  crime  of  the  real  co-operatives  was 
that  they  believed  in  the  exchange  of  commodities  which 
the  Bolshevists  themselves  now  call  "free  trade"  but 
which  they  formerly  called  "criminal  speculation  and 
profiteering."  Here  is  a  paragraph  from  Miss  Bond- 
field's  report: 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  POPULATION       119 

When  the  Revolution  first  broke  out,  the  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment recognized  the  importance  to  their  economic 
policy  of  the  co-eperative  movement.  They  nursed  it  in 
every  possible  way,  and  treated  it  as  a  pet  child.  But 
the  co-operators,  who  were  Mensheviks  and  Social 
Revolutionaries,  could  not  or  would  not  grasp  the  great 
conception  of  economic  change.  They  were  also  political 
enemies  of  the  Government.  For  two  and  a  half  years  it 
has  had  the  passive  and  sometimes  active  opposition  of 
some  of  the  co-operative  leaders.  Earlier  still,  in  the 
first  year  of  war,  many  co-operative  Societies  became  a 
bunch  of  spectators  and  profiteers  just  like  the  capi- 
talists. 

The  " speculators  and  profiteers"  then  subject  to  the 
firing  squad  are  now  to  be  known  as  "free  traders." 

It  is  illuminating  to  examine  the  new  decree  on  co- 
operatives which  is  advertised  by  pro-Soviet  propa- 
gandists abroad  (though  not  in  Russia!)  as  one  of  the 
most  solid  proofs  of  Lenin's  "abandonment  of  com- 
munism." Here  is  a  good  press  summary: 

The  decree  mdkes  all  citizens  of  Russia  automatically 
members  of  the  co-operative  system.  It  prescribes  that 
there  can  be  only  one  co-operative  in  each  town,  village, 
or  factory.  Freedom  of  trading  for  individuals  is  em- 
bodied in  the  provision  permitting  members  to  buy  com- 
modities through  the  co-operatives,  paying  in  money  or 
products,  and  to  exchange  among  themselves  goods 
received  through  their  co-operatives.  To  the  societies 
within  Russia  is  granted  the  right  to  buy  surplus  agricul- 
tural products  or  products  of  national  industries  and 
to  sell  them  to  their  members;  to  conclude  contracts 
under  Soviet  law  with  peasants'  and  workers'  organiza- 
tions, and  to  arrange  for  furnishing  agricultural  ma- 
chinery, threshing  grain,  and  storing  and  delivering 
products. 


120         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

The  co-operative  societies  are  also  given  the  right  to 
organize  enterprises  for  production  or  working  over  raw 
products,  and  also  to  organize  truck  gardening  and 
dairies  on  a  large  scale.  To  the  co-operative  societies 
are  assigned  the  sole  right  to  organise  distribution  and 
exchange  of  products  throughout  the  country.  They  are 
to  be  directed  by  administrators  elected  in  general  con- 
ventions at  which  all  citizens  have  the  right  to  vote 
except  those  excluded  from  suffrage  by  the  Soviet  Con- 
stitution. 

The  sentences  underlined  when  taken  together  show 
what  it  all  amounts  to.  The  co-operatives  remain  a  com- 
pulsory governmental  monopoly.  They  trade  in  what 
agricultural  products  the  Soviets  are  pleased  to  leave 
to  the  peasant  and  in  the  products  of  the  Soviet's  nation- 
alized industries  at  prices  fixed  by  the  Soviets.  The 
"conventions"  that  are  to  govern  the  co-operatives  are 
official,  are  conducted  under  Soviet  "law"  and  super- 
vision and,  the  voting  being  public,  opposition  voters  will 
be  men  marked  for  discrimination  by  the  Sovet  Govern- 
ment and,  if  too  assertive,  for  prosecution  by  the  lawless 
Extraordinary  Commission.  A  regime  which  has  not 
permitted  majority  control  even  in  the  Soviets  will 
scarcely  permit  any  but  Communist  control  of  the  co- 
operatives. 

An  almost  exact  parallel  may  be  noted  between  the 
Bolshevist  treatment  of  the  co-operatives  and  their  treat- 
ment of  the  trade  unions.  (See  previous  chapter.) 

In  spite  of  all  these  undeniable  facts  the  American 
pro-Bolshevist  press,  Eed,  Yellow,  and  "liberal,"  as  well 
as  the  press  representing  reactionary  capitalistic  groups 
who  hope  to  make  a  profitable  deal  with  Lenin,  have 
hailed  the  restoration  of  "taxation  in  kind"  as  the  end 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  POPULATION       121 

of  Bolshevism  in  agricultural  Russia  and  the  restoration 
of  capitalism.  Lenin,  as  usual  has  furnished  phrases 
for  his  friends — but  it  is  to  be  noted  that  these  phrases 
are  very  similar  to  those  he  employed  before  his  sup- 
posed reforms.  The  following  expressions  in  his  speech 
at  the  Communist  Congress  in  March  (1921)  must  be  in- 
terpreted in  the  double  light  of  his  previous  speeches — 
above  quoted — and  of  the  relatively  insignificant  action 
actually  taken  as  a  result  of  all  this  verbiage.  Lenin 
said: 


It  is  impossible  to  deceive  a  class  of  the  population, 
and  it  is  dangerous  to  go  on  deceiving  one's  self.  It 
is  time  to  admit  frankly  that  the  peasants  manifestly 
refuse  to  accept  any  longer  proletarian  dictatorship. 

The  right  of  the  free  disposal  of  their  surplus  products 
must  be  the  necessary  incentive  for  the  peasants,  and 
I  invite  the  party  to  acknowledge  its  grave  blunder  in 
attempting  to  deprive  the  producers  of  this  right,  the 
most  elemental  of  the  peasants'  instincts. 

We  must  grant  freer  economic  relations  between 
workers  and  peasants.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  hitherto 
have  acted  in  a  too  military  manner,  and  in  some  cases 
have  gone  too  far  in  nationalizing  trade.  If  some  Com- 
munists thought  the  organization  of  a  socialistic  state 
was  possible  in  three  years,  they  were  dreamers.  Free- 
dom of  economic  relations  means  free  trade,  and  free 
trade  signifies  a  return  to  capitalism. 

Those  who  believe  that  in  this  Russia  of  peasants 
Socialism  can  be  realized,  simply  believe  in  Utopia. 

Let  us  see  what  all  this  means.  In  spite  of  Lenin's 
statement  that  the  peasants  can  no  longer  be  deceived 
he  is  attempting  to  deceive  them  with  the  long  tried 


122         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

phrase,  "taxation  in  kind."  The  peasants,  he  recog- 
nizes, do  not  accept  the  proletarian  dictatorship;  still 
Lenin  proposes  to  give  them  no  voice  whatever  in  the 
Communist  Government.  Undoubtedly  such  very  re- 
stricted free  trade  as  has  been  established  means,  to 
that  small  degree,  a  return  to  capitalism.  By  admitting 
the  fact  Lenin  puts  his  critics  off  their  guard.  His 
defense  of  this  decree  before  his  own  followers  (above 
quoted)  is  that  the  remaining-  parts  of  the  Communist 
system  will  be  strengthened  by  this  slight  economic  con- 
cession, since  it  is  unaccompanied  by  any  surrender  of 
actual  political  power.  As  to  his  supposed  concession 
about  the  impossibility  of  realizing  Socialism  in  Russia 
now,  the  whole  reason  for  the  proletarian  dictatorship, 
as  we  have  pointed  out,  is  precisely  that  violence  will  be 
needed  to  hold  the  power  over  the  peasant  majority — 
until  in  a  generation  or  two,  Socialism  does  become  feas- 
ible. Not  only  have  the  Communists  always  used  this 
argument  but  they  have  never  used  any  other.  Because 
the  country  is  not  ready  for  Communism,  the  dictator- 
ship of  the  Communists  must  be  prolonged  indefinitely — 
until  it  is  ready. 

In  his  closing  speech  at  the  March  (1921)  Congress 
of  the  Russian  Communist  Party — reproduced  in  Soviet 
Russia,  May  14th,  1921 — Lenin  again  laid  bare  in  a  few 
words  his  entire  policy  towards  the  agricultural  popu- 
lation (peasants)  who  compose  the  overwhelming  ma- 
jority of  the  nation.  The  inauguration  of  the  law  of 
"taxation  in  kind,"  or,  rather,  the  reversion  to  that  law, 
it  will  be  observed,  had  made  no  change  whatever  in 
the  Bolshevist  attitude  towards  the  subjected  peasantry. 
Lenin  said : 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  POPULATION      123 

The  work  of  our  congress  will  be  the  more  successful 
that  we  have  achieved  absolute  agreement  from  the  very 
beginning  on  two  fundamental  questions;  the  relations 
of  the  vanguard  of  the  proletariat  with  the  proletarian 
masses  and  its  relations  with  the  peasants. 

We  may  stop  the  citation  here  to  point  out  once  more 
that  the  Bolshevist  attitude  towards  the  proletarian  or 
industrial  masses  is  almost  the  same  as  their  attitude 
towards  the  peasants  or  agricultural  masses.  Lenin 
continues : 

We  know  that  the  only  force  able  to  unite  millions  of 
scattered  small  proprietors  who  are  constantly  enduring 
great  hardships,  the  only  force  able  to  unite  them  eco- 
nomically and  politically  against  the  exploiters,  is  the 
class-conscious  proletariat. 

Here  is  the  same  claim  of  the  little  group  that  con- 
trols the  Communist  Party  that  they  are  divinely  or 
otherwise  called  to  rule  the  masses  without  their  con- 
sent. And,  finally,  Lenin  proceeds  to  disclose  the  very 
foundations  of  Bolshevist  policy.  An  alliance  or  part- 
nership with  foreign  capital  is  absolutely  indispensable 
because  there  must  be  at  least  a  minimum  of  "benevo- 
lence" in  the  tyranny  of  the  Soviets  or  the  peasants  by 
continued  passive  resistance  and  violence  will  not  permit 
them  to  work.  These  political  serfs  cannot  be  perma- 
nently held  in  subjection  unless  something  is  done 
towards  ameliorating  the  misery  into  which  they  hare 
fallen  through  Czarist  and  Bolshevist  rule.  On  this 
point  Lenin  declares: 

Relations  will  be  normal  then,  and  only  then,  when 
the  proletariat  is  in  possession  of  a  large  scale  industry 


124         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN.  MOUTHS 

with  its  products,  and  when  it  not  only  meets  the  needs 
of  the  peasant  but,  besides  furnishing  him  with  the 
necessities  of  life,  so  improves  his  position  that  its 
superiority  over  the  capitalistic  system  will  be  evident 
and  palpable.  This,  and  nothing  else,  would  constitute 
the  basis  of  normal  Socialistic  society.  We  cannot  bring 
this  about  immediately — so  harassed  are  we  by  ruin,  need 
and  impoverishment. 

It  is,  indeed,  a  Iarge-si2ed  task  for  an  utterly  bankrupt 
and  incredibly  inefficient  bureaucracy  to  lift  up  materi- 
ally the  level  of  100,000,000  wretched  and  embittered 
agriculturists.  To  accomplish  this  the  Bolshevists' 
grandiose  and  original  idea  is  to  sell  all  that  is  most 
valuable  in  Kussia,  industrially,  to  foreign  capitalists. 
This  plan,  in  turn,  is  based  upon  the  expectation  of  a 
world  revolution  which,  within  a  few  months  or  a  few 
years,  will  make  it  unnecessary  to  pay  the  foreign  capi- 
talists for  the  new  plants  and  machinery  that  will  have 
been  set  up.  Even  if  this  plan  is  not  unanimously  held 
by  every  one  of  the  negotiators,  the  fact  that  it  is  openly 
preached  to  the  entire  Eussian  nation  proves  that  any 
such  concessions  are  likely  to  be  the  source  of  endless 
international  friction  and  possibly  of  wars,  whatever  the 
future  government  of  Russia  may  be.  If  that  govern- 
ment is  Bolshevist  the  agitation  for  world  revolution  will 
continue,  revived  whenever  any  foreign  upheaval 
threatens.  If  the  future  government  is  non-Bolshevist 
it  will  certainly  repudiate  the  transaction  that  led  to  the 
delivery  of  these  vast  sums  into  the  hands  of  the  Bol- 
shevist enemy,  and  to  this  attempted  wholesale  alienation 
of  the  patrimony  of  generations  yet  unborn.  (See 
Chapter  XIII.) 


VIII 

THE   ECONOMIC   COLLAPSE;   FICTITIOUS 
REFORMS 

WHILE  industry  was  somewhat  backward  in  Russia 
under  the  Czars  there  was  already  a  considerable  devel- 
opment. The  country  had  risen  to  an  economic  level 
far  in  advance  of  Asia  or  even  of  the  other  outlying 
parts  of  Europe.  Several  millions  of  working  men  were 
employed  in  modern  industries  and  40,000  miles  of  rail- 
road were  being  operated  under  modern  methods  and 
with  modern  equipment,  as  good  as  that  of  a  number 
of  other  European  countries.  In  a  country  in  this  semi- 
developed  condition  and  with  a  backward  political  gov- 
ernment the  war  did  more  damage  than  elsewhere  and 
the  civil  war  that  followed  greatly  increased  the  work 
of  destruction.  "We  do  not  quote  any  figures  as  to  the 
economic  collapse,  since  it  is  impossible  to  say  what  part 
of  the  existing  condition  is  due  to  the  present  govern- 
ment and  what  part  is  due  to  previous  causes.  Without, 
however,  quoting  any  figures  Bolshevist  authorities  show 
that  no  effective  effort  is  being  made  to  fight  the  con- 
stantly increasing  economic  disintegration — in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  such  efforts  are  more  needed  in  Russia 
than  in  any  other  part  of  the  world  today. 

In  the  report  of  the  Central  Soviet  Executive  Com- 
mittee (Moscow  wireless  March  23,  1921)  Kalinin  said: 

125 


126         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

We  are  confronted  by  a  number  of  obstacles.  The 
main  obstacle  is  disorganization.  In  order  to  improve 
the  condition  of  the  workmen  and  peasants  not  in  words 
but  in  deeds,  it  is  necessary  to  deliver  a  decisive  blow 
to  disorganization.  At  present,  however,  there  are  a 
great  many  obstacles  in  the  way  of  a  successful  struggle 
against  disorganization.  One  of  these  obstacles  is  ban- 
ditism,  which  is  greatly  developed  in  some  provinces. 
Bandits,  who  have  been  created  by  wealthy  peasants  who 
cannot  reconcile  themselves  to  Soviet  authority,  mas- 
querade as  the  protectors  of  the  interests  of  the  peasants. 

Here  we  have  a  confession  as  to  the  state  of  disor- 
ganization and  the  chief  obstacles,  namely,  the  revolts 
of  the  agricultural  population — which  Kalinin  designates 
as  a  revolt  of  bandits  and  wealthy  peasants,  although 
the  latter  class,  as  recently  stated  by  Lenin  is  now  non- 
existent, and  no  bodies  can  better  deserve  the  title  of 
"bandits"  than  the  expeditions  sent  out  by  the  Soviets 
to  plunder  the  countryside. 

The  Bolshevists  give  additional  causes  for  the  economic 
degeneration : 

For  3,150,000  workmen  there  are  in  Russia  2,000,000 
officials — 1,500,000  belonging  to  the  staffs  of  controlling 
organizations.  (Official  statistical  data  quoted  in  the 
official  Economic  Life,  Dec.  9, 1920.) 

One  of  the  best  descriptions  of  the  results  of  this  sort 
of  thing  is  given  by  Prince  Kropotkin,  the  eminent 
philosophical  anarchist,  just  deceased  in  Soviet  Russia. 
In  a  letter  to  the  British  workers,  very  similar  to  that 
printed  in  the  report  of  the  British  labor  delegation, 
Kropotkin  declares: 


THE  ECONOMIC  COLLAPSE  127 

The  ways  to  be  followed  for  overthrowing  an  already 
weakened  Government  and  taking  its  place  are  well 
known  from  history,  old  and  modern.  But  when  it  comes 
to  building  up  quite  new  forms  of  life,  especially  new 
forms  of  production  and  exchange,  without  having  any 
examples  to  imitate,  when  everything  has  to  be  worked 
out  by  men  on  the  spot,  then  an  all  powerful  centralised 
Government  which  undertakes  to  supply  every  in- 
habitant with  every  lamp  glass  and  every  match  to  light 
the  lamp,  proves  absolutely  incapable  of  doing  that 
through  its  functionaries,  no  matter  how  countless  they 
may  be.  It  becomes  a  nuisance. 

It  develops  snch  a  formidable  bureaucracy  that  the 
French  bureaucratic  system,  which  requires  the  inter- 
vention of  40  functionaries  to  sell  a  tree  felled  by  a 
storm  on  a  route  nationale,  becomes  a  trifle  in  compari- 
son. This  is  what  we  now  learn  in  Russia.  And  this 
is  what  you,  the  working  men  of  the  West,  can  and  must 
avoid  by  all  means,  since  you  care  for  the  success  of 
social  reconstruction,  and  sent  here  your  delegates  to 
see  how  a  social  revolution  works  in  real  life. 

To  sweep  away  that  collaboration  and  to  trust  to  the 
genius  of  party  dictators  is  to  destroy  all  the  independent 
nuclei,  such  as  "trade  unions"  and  the  local  distributive 
co-operative  organization,  turning  them  into  bureau- 
cratic organs  of  the  party — as  is  being  done  now. 

A  correspondent  of  a  European  socialist  paper  now 
living  in  Soviet  Russia  writes  in  a  similar  vein: 

All  the  new  organisations  can  do  nothing  with  the 
general  ruin.  "We  possess  enormous  riches,  but  cannot 
raise  them.  We  have  no  men,  no  tools,  no  transport,  no 
dress,  nor  boots.  But  we  have  a  Provincial  Labour  Com- 
mittee, a  Provincial  Metallic  Industry  Committee,  a 
Provincial  Dress  Committee  (one  suit  for  10  years),  a 
Provincial  Leather  Committee  (only  for  the  army;  the 
civilians  receive  no  leather),  and  so  on. 


128         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

Another  reason  for  the  additional  decay  which  the 
Soviets  have  superimposed  upon  the  degenerated  in- 
dustry that  they  inherited  has  been  their  deplorable 
policy  of  exterminating  the  professional  classes — a  policy 
which  is  summed  up  in  a  letter  written  by  the  famous 
Bolshevist  writer,  Maxim  Gorky,  to  Lenin  and  printed 
in  the  Volya  Rossii  on  October  2,  1920.  In  this  letter 
Gorky  refers  to  "the  extermination  of  the  cultural  re- 
sources of  the  country": 

While  saving  our  own  hides  we  are  cutting  off  the 
head  of  the  nation,  destroying  its  brain. 

Vladimir  Hitch,  I  take  my  stand  on  their  side,  and 
I  prefer  arrest  and  imprisonment  to  complicity,  even 
though  it  be  only  silent,  in  the  extermination  of  the 
best  and  most  invaluable  forces  of  the  Russian  people. 
To  me  it  has  become  evident  that  the  "Reds"  are  just 
such  enemies  of  the  people  as  are  the  "Whites." 

A  fourth  vice  of  the  Soviet  system  which  is  burdening 
industrial  administration  is  the  passing  of  endless,  im- 
praetical  and  unenforceable  decrees.  Lenin  himself 
refers  to  certain  agricultural  decrees  as  intended 
primarily  for  propaganda.  And  at  a  meeting  reported 
in  Izvestia,  Moscow,  January  1,  1921,  he  declared : 

In  Smolny  we  have  talked  more  than  enough  about 
general  principles.  Now  after  three  years  we  have 
decrees  on  many  points  of  this  question  [the  trade  union 
question]  concerning  many  of  its  integral  parts.  But 
it  is  the  sad  fate  of  the  decrees  that  they  are  signed 
in  order  to  be  forgotten  and  to  go  unfulfilled  by  us. 

We  are  able  to  study  differences  of  opinion  in  prin- 
ciple and  even  then  make  mistakes,  we  are  masters  at 


THE  ECONOMIC  COLLAPSE  129 

this,  but  to  study  practical  things,  and  to  verify  them, 
we  are  unable  to  do. 

What  is  most  amusing  is  that  Lenin  himself  soon  gave 
an  illustration  of  the  truth  of  his  accusations.  The  all- 
important  problem  for  the  Soviets  is  to  get  the  perse- 
cuted workers  to  work.  The  supposed  means  of  accom- 
plishing this  at  present  are  so-called  disciplinary  courts. 
Yet  Lenin  and  other  Bolshevist  chiefs  had  apparently 
forgotten  the  very  existence  of  these  courts  or  of  the 
decree  promulgating  them.  In  Pmvda  (January  13, 
1921)  in  an  account  of  the  All-Russian  Conference  of 
Professional  Unions  he  is  quoted  as  follows : 

When  I  read  Rudzutuk's  theses  about  disciplinary 
courts,  I  thought  there  certainly  must  be  a  decree  about 
this.  And,  indeed  there  was.  A  regulation  concerning 
Disciplinary  Labor  juries,  was  promulgated  on  November 
14th,  1919  (Statute-Book  No.  537). 

As  this  decree  had  been  on  the  statute  books  over 
a  year  no  wonder  Lenin  had  forgotten  its  existence — 
in  view  of  the  numbers  of  the  decrees  issued  since  that 
time. 

In  this  matter  of  paper  decrees  as  in  the  matter  of 
the  issuance  of  paper  money  and  of  Bolshevist  propa- 
ganda generally  there  is  one  hope.  The  paper  supply 
is  very  short.  The  type  is  being  rapidly  used  up.  The 
production  of  type-making  factories  is  one-twentieth  that 
of  peace  times.  Then  the  number  of  workmen  in  the 
printing  industry,  doubtless  for  reasons  we  have  already 
pointed  out,  has  been  reduced  to  one-half. 

We  cannot  better  sum  up  the  total  failure  of  the 


130         OUT.  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

economic  and  industrial  policy  of  the  Soviets  than  in 
the  words  of  Maxim  Gorky  in  the  Moscow  Pravda: 

Revolutionary  Socialist  policy  is  assuredly  a  very 
beautiful  thing,  but-  we  must  work.  We  have  created 
an  atmosphere  of  general  idleness  and  criminal  negli- 
gence. We  have  never  worked  so  ill  or  so  dishonestly 
as  at  present.  To  be  sure,  this  is  in  part  the  result  of 
malnutrition  and  consequent  bodily  weakness,  but  in  the 
main  it  proceeds  from  a  lack  of  sense  of  responsibility. 

Again  if  we  wish  a  detailed  picture  of  Ihe  working 
out  of  the  system  we  cannot  do  better  tfi*an  to  quote 
from  another  article  of  Gorky's  in  the  same  journal. 
The  description  of  this  master  writer  and  Bolshevist  is 
so  able  and  conclusive  that  we  quote  it  at  some  length: 

In  another  place  a  car  is  being  loaded.  On  one  axle 
are  piled  heavy  barrels  of  cement,  cases  of  lead,  pieces 
of  machinery,  &c.  On  the  other,  rocking  chairs,  house- 
hold goods,  a  perambulator — things  that  are  quite  light. 
The  overloaded  axle  will  of  course  become  heated  and 
the  car  will  not  reach  its  destination.  I  have  been  a 
porter  myself.  I  know  that  had  I  tried  to  load  a  wagon 
in  that  way  my  boss  would  have  boxed  my  ears  and  told 
me  to  go  to  the  devil.  And  I  should  have  deserved  it, 
for  I  should  have  been  injuring  the  rolling  stock. 

In  another  place  a  mechanical  saw  is  being  used  to 
cut  rafters  vand  planks  from  a  house  which  has  been 
torn  down.  The  wood  is  full  of  nails  and  the  saw  groans 
painfully.  It  is  quickly  spoiled  and  its  teeth  broken, 
yet  it  is  common  knowledge  that  we  have  no  saws  and 
that  the  price  is  so  high  that  for  one  saw  we  have  to 
give  many  bushels  of  wheat,  and  wheat  itself  is  scarce. 

Houses  are  being  destroyed  in  a  most  revolting  fashion. 
The  windows  are  all  broken,  though  we  have  no  glass, 


THE  ECONOMIC  COLLAPSE  131 

and  it  would  be  so  easy  to  take  out  the  panes  without 
breaking  them.  In  the  barracks  transparent  paper  takes 
the  place  of  window  glass,  letting  in  no  light  and  keeping 
in  no  heat,  therefore  more  furniture  is  burnt  to  warm 
the  barracks. 

Metal  roofing  is  allowed  to  lie  for  months  in  the  midst 
of  the  wreckage  of  destroyed  houses.  It  rusts  and  be- 
comes absolutely  useless.  The  roofs  of  the  inhabited 
houses  are  also  rusted  and  the  rain  comes  through,  but 
nothing  is  done  to  mend  them.  "Walls  and  ceilings  fall 
in  and  well  built  houses  rapidly  become  uninhabitable. 

And  this  is  how  by  sheer  stupidity,  by  lack  of  regard 
for  their  own  labor,  our  people  destroy  the  valuable 
assets  of  the  nation  and  ruin  the  patrimony  of  the  public. 

Our  streets  are  littered  with  pieces  of  iron  and  the 
moujik  (peasant)  in  his  village  has  nothing  wherewith 
to  repair  his  wheels  and  axles,  and  cannot  even  forge 
shoes  or  nails  for  his  horses  or  teeth  for  his  rakes.  That 
is  why  he  goes  out  to  the  railway  bridges  and  tries  to 
saw  off  a  piece  of  iron,  or  to  loosen  the  rivets  of  the 
sleepers,  or  attempts  to  steal  from  the  station  the  piece 
of  metal  that  he  needs.  For  a  carload  of  iron  the  moujik 
would  gladly  barter  a  carload  of  wheat.  Yet  the  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  old  saucepans  that  are  scattered 
among  the  ruins  of  the  houses  would  suit  him  very  well 
and  he  could  put  to  good  use  the  window  sashes  and 
doors  that  are  burned  in  the  cities  for  heating  purposes. 

Doubtless  these  are  all  very  minor  matters,  and  par- 
ticularly unimportant  to  us  whose  object  is  to  teach 
the  whole  world  a  new  order  of  things  and  a  new  manner 
of  life.  But  can  one  learn  conscientiously  from  masters 
who  themselves  either  do  not  know  how  to  work  or  will 
not  work,  and  who  will  soon  have  no  clothes  to  put  on 
their  backs?  I  do  not  think  the  European  workman 
can  have  any  great  respect  for  comrades  who  do  not 
know  how  to  organize  their  own  labor.  The  politics  of 
social  revolution  doubtless  is  very  fine,  but  work  comes 
first. 


132         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

All  these  little  things  of  which  I  have  spoken  are 
repeated  by  thousands,  by  tens  of  thousands,  and  they 
create  an  atmosphere  of  scandalous  unrest,  of  laziness 
and  of  criminal  carelessness,  for  all  that  goes  to  make 
up  the  patrimony  of  the  public. 

In  lieu  of  a  conclusion  to  the  above  we  may  quote 
the  expression  of  that  Socialistic  progressive  who  is 
President  of  Czecho-Slovakia,  Professor  Masaryk — an 
ardent  admirer  of  the  Russian  people  and  a  life  long 
student  at  first  hand  of  Russian  affairs.  President 
Masaryk  says: 

The  trouble  with  the  Bolshevists  is  they  do  not  know, 
and  never  have  known,  how  to  work.  They  know  how 
to  make  slaves,  fight,  and  murder,  but  they  are  unable 
to  work  with  application  and  continuity. 

The  economic  conditions  are  getting  rapidly  worse. 
The  leading  Soviet  railway  expert  calculates  that  it  will 
take  25  years  to  put  the  Russian  railways  back  into 
shape.  But  to  accomplish  regeneration  even  in  this 
period  would  require  Al  credit  abroad  and  a  high  degree 
of  efficiency  at  home.  As  long  as  efficiency,  according  to 
Bolshevist  reports,  ranges  from  20  to  70  per  cent  of  the 
low  pre-war  level  and  credit  approaches  zero,  regenera- 
tion is  impossible  and  progressive  degeneration — as 
Hughes  and  Hoover  state — must  continue.  According 
to  official  Bolshevist  reports  mines  are  in  a  worse  state 
than  the  railways  and  the  basic  iron  and  steel  industries 
are  in  a  still  more  complete  condition  of  collapse.  Under 
these  conditions  the  few  hundred  foreign  locomotives 
that  can  be  paid  for  are  but  a  drop  in  the  bucket.  The 
slight  improvements  reported  amount  to  nothing  in  com- 


THE  ECONOMIC  COLLAPSE  133 

parison  to  the  wholesale  deterioration  of  40,000  miles 
of  roadbed  and  the  rotting  away  of  the  machinery  in 
thousands  of  mines. 

It  is  obvious  that  all  social  reforms  on  a  national  scale 
are  wholly  impossible  under  economic  conditions  like 
these,  where  the  industrial  population  has  been  reduced 
to  a  third  or  fourth  of  what  it  was  and  where  the  wage- 
earners 'that  remain  are  wretchedly  clothed  and  are 
happy  when  they  have  a  starvation  ration  of  black  bread 
— to  say  nothing  of  any  other  food.  Reforms  of  any 
substantial  kind  whatever  for  100,000,000  people  cost 
colossal  sums  of  money,  and  occasional  "model"  institu- 
tions in  a  vast  country  are  but  a  mockery  serving  to 
demonstrate  the  utter  inadequacy  and  futility  of  what 
is  being  accomplished. 

Far  from  moving  forward  we  can  be  mathematically 
certain  that  every  fundamental  institution  is  falling  back 
in  Russia  today — especially  when  we  remember  that  the 
liberal  Zemstvos,  or  provincial  councils,  under  the  old 
regime,  had  made  a  considerable  beginning  in  certain 
directions. 

Yet  the  Bolshevist  propagandists  and  their  "liberal" 
accomplices  have  the  audacity  to  assert  that  vast  and 
substantial  reforms  are  being  carried  out  in  "art," 
"science,"  "education"  and  "culture."  Though  no 
foundation  whatever  for  any  of  these  assertions  has  been 
produced  they  have  been  so  often  repeated  that  the 
impression  has  become  widespread  that  there  must  be 
"something"  in  them. 

The  most  notorious  of  the  mythical  "reforms"  being 
reported  by  the  Bolshevists  and  their  friends  is  the 
reform  of  the  schools  and  the  supposed  good  treatment 


134         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

of  children  by  the  Soviets.  Yet  it  is  precisely  the  rising 
generation  that  always  suffers  most  from  such  moral 
and  intellectual  chaos  and  physical  suffering  as  prevail 
for  men,  women  and  children  in  Russia  today.  Far 
from  putting  the  children  first,  the  Soviets  have  put 
them  almost  last.  First  comes  the  Red  Army — used  not 
only  for  defense  but  for  aggression  and  to  put  down 
peasant  attempts  at  self-government  with  sufficient 
bloodshed  to  terrorize  the  survivors.  Then  comes  the 
propaganda,  squandering  millions  of  dollars  from  South 
America  to  China — and  in  every  village  of  Russia. 
Next  comes  the  Soviet  bureaucracy — usually  given  food 
privileges  on  the  plausible  ground  that  they  need  them 
in  the  strenuous  work  of  keeping  their  hold  on  the 
government.  Besides  these  two  classes  the  army  of  spies, 
food  seizing  detachments,  etc.,  can  obviously  get  and 
demand  preferred  treatment.  After  all  these,  no  doubt, 
the  children  are  given  a  preference  over  the  remainder 
of  the  population.  And  our  wretched  sentimentalists 
call  this  "looking  out  for  the  children!" 

The  Communists  always  assert  and  never  deny  that 
they  are  deliberately  sacrificing  the  entire  population  for 
the  present — in  the  belief  that  they  are  thus  introducing 
the  form  of  future  society  that  they  prefer.  They 
acknowledge  they  are  largely  responsible  for  the  bureau- 
cracy, disorganization,  etc.,  that  are  among  the  chief 
causes  of  the  suffering.  Here  is  how  this  affects  the 
children : 

Frederick  J.  Libby,  commissioner  of  the  American 
Friends'  Service  Committee  (Quakers),  who  recently 
returned  from  Reval,  brought  back  information  that- 
many  children  are  starving  in  Russia. 


THE  ECONOMIC  COLLAPSE  135 

Mr.  Libby  obtained  his  information  from  Arthur  J. 
Watts,  an  English  Friend,  who  has  been  engaged  in 
relief  work  in  Russia.  Mr.  Watts  gave  Mr.  Libby  a 
translation  of  the  reports  of  Eussian  commissars  from 
various  cities. 

It  appears  from  the  commissars'  report  that  the  situa- 
tion of  the  children  varies  greatly  in  the  different  cen- 
tres. In  some  cities,  such  as  Vitebsk,  it  is  reported  that 
whole  families  are  perishing  from  starvation.  In  others, 
such  as  Smolensk,  Yaroslav,  the  children  are  reported 
to  be  obtaining  sufficient  nourishment.  The  report  from 
Vitebsk  stated  that  the  bread  substitutes  give  the  chil- 
dren dysentery  which  it  is  impossible  to  cure. 

The  commissars  report  that  in  several  centres  the  chil- 
dren had  been  unable  to  obtain  bread  for  a  long  time 
and  that  in  others  no  kind  of  fats  or  meats  were  obtain- 
able and  that  milk  was  received  rarely. 

The  children  of  Moscow  were  declared  to  have  no 
sugar  nor  fats,  and  to  be  either  starving  or  falling  ill 
through  under-nourishment.  Inmates  of  the  children's 
homes  in  Novgorod  are  starving,  the  reports  stated. 
They  receive  no  meat,  butter,  potatoes,  milk  or  salt,  but 
live  on  a  daily  portion  of  sour  cabbage  soup,  millet 
cooked  in  water,  and  black  bread  made  from  bad  flour. 
They  are  suffering  from  scurvy  as  a  result  of  under- 
nourishment. 

For  all  this  the  Bolshevists  are  largely — though,  of 
course,  not  wholly — responsible.  Whatever  the  degree 
of  their  responsibility  may  be,  it  is  an  outrageous  false- 
hood to  talk  of  great  educational  advances  under  such 
conditions — which  are  admitted  as  being  far  worse  than 
anything  Russia  has  hitherto  experienced. 

Yet  the  Soviets  have  never  ceased  to  put  forth*  inflated 
and  grandiose  paper  schemes  as  if  certain  of  accomplish- 


136         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

ment,  to  take  credit  to  themselves  for  the  reopening  of 
old  institutions  under  new  names,  such  as  "children's 
palaces,"  to  show  off  a  handful  of  favored  schools  as 
typical  of  thousands,  to  talk  of  new  methods  while  ad- 
mitting the  wholesale  lack  not  only  of  new  teachers  but 
of  teachers  generally,  and — while  foisting  upon  the  chil- 
dren their  crude,  ignorant,  violent  and  petty  dogmas  in 
the  place  of  the  culture  of  the  "ages — to  claim  that  they 
are  giving  them  a  new  and  superior  education.  "We  have 
Russian  Communists  in  America.  Let  anybody  who 
knows  them  think  of  what  is  happening  to  the  starving 
and  helpless  children  of  Russia  in  the  light  of  this  Mos- 
cow wireless  of  February  6th,  1921 : 

Instructions  of  the  General  Committee  of  the  Russian 
Communist  Party  of  Communist  Workers  of  tEe  People 's 
Commissariat  for  Education: 

The  fundamental  direction  must  remain  in  the  hands 
of  the  Communists,  while  the  specialists  are  to  be  their 
assistants.  The  curriculum  of  general  education  is  to  be 
decided  upon  by  the  Communists  alone. 

Recalling  the  fact  that  only  the  most  violent  and 
narrow-minded  one  per  cent  of  Russia  are  members  of 
the  Communist  Party,  and  remembering  that  the  200,000 
teachers  who,  it  is  said,  are  needed  will  absorb  a  large 
part  of  that  organization,  leaving  no  possibility  of  dis- 
crimination in  appointments,  consider  the  statement  of 
the  Communist  Party  Congress  in  March,  1919,  that  one 
"basis  of  educational  work  already  established  by  the 
Soviet  Government  is  the  preparation  of  a  new  class 
of  teachers  who  are  imbued  with  Communism." 

Lenin  explained  the  Bolshevist  conception  of  public 


THE  ECONOMIC  COLLAPSE  137 

education  in  the  most  explicit  manner  at  the  All-Russian 
Political  Education  Conference  on  the  5th  of  November, 
1920.  (See  Soviet  Russia,  April  30th,  1921.)  He  ex- 
plained that  the  teachers  must  be,  first  of  all,  political 
propagandists  and  humble  followers  of  the  Communist 
Party: 

We  must  treat  this  question  frankly  and  in  complete 
opposition  to  tradition,  must  combat  the  erroneous  con- 
ception that  education  may  under  no  circumstances  be 
combined  with  politics.  "We  are  living  in  a  historic 
period,  in  the  period  of  struggle  against  the  world 
bourgeoisie,  which  is  still  very  much  stronger  than  we 
are.  In  such  a  moment  of  struggle  we  must  defend  our 
Socialist  work  of  construction  and  wage  a  conflict  with 
this  bourgeoisie,  both  in  a  military  and — what  is  more 
important — in  a  spiritual  sense,  in  the  way  of  education. 

The  teaching  staff  must  itself  attract  the  working 
classes,  fill  them  with  the  Communist  spirit,  interest  them 
in  what  the  Communists  are  doing  and  win  them  over 
to  the  Communist  standpoint. 

But  the  school  teacher  the  world  over  has  a  certain 
minimum  respect  for  his  calling.  Though  the  over- 
whelming majority  of  the  teachers  under  Kerensky  were 
Social  Revolutionists  or  Social  Democrats,  they  were 
teachers,  and  not  propagandists.  Dismissed  by  the 
wholesale,  the  majority  of  the  new  teachers  are  scarcely 
more  amenable.  Lenin  and  Lunacharsky,  Commissary 
for  Education,  complain  bitterly  of  this  difficulty  and 
pursue  their  usual  method  of  vilifying  their  victims. 
Lenin  says,  in  the  speech  just  quoted: 

Already  for  a  long  time  the  teachers '  organization  has 
•  been  fighting  against  the  socialist  transformation.  In 


138         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

pedagogical  circles  the  bourgeois  prejudices  have  taken 
particularly  firm  root,  and  we  are  compelled  to  conquer 
our  Communist  position  slowly,  step  by  step.  The  teach- 
ing staff,  which  grew  up  in  bourgeois  prejudices,  was  at 
the  bottom  of  its  heart  hostile  to  the  proletariat  and 
had  no  contact  with  it.  We  must  now  raise  a  new  army 
of  pedagogical  workers,  which  must  be  more  closely 
connected  with  the  party,  more  intimately  acquainted 
with  its  ideals,  more  fully  impressed  with  the  spirit  of 
those  ideas. 

Far  from  any  advance  less  than  27  per  cent  of  the 
children  are  receiving  any  instruction  whatever.  Hu~ 
mcmite,  the  leading  Communist  organ  of  France,  on 
January  3,  1920,  in  summing  up  the  official  report  of 
Lunacharsky,  Chief  Soviet  Commissar  for  Education, 
gives  this  figure  and  the  British  Labor  Party's  Russian 
delegation  reports: 

The  Russian  educational  authorities  estimate  that  25 
per  cent  of  the  child  population  are  now  in  receipt  of 
a  normal  education  of  the  elementary  type.  This  is  prob- 
ably an  overestimate,  as  in  some  places  visited  accom- 
modation for  only  10  per  cent  of  the  children  existed; 
and  also  there  is  no  method  of  insuring  compulsory 
attendance  as  in  England,  and  children  who  do  not  wish 
to  attend  simply  remain  away.  In  some  of  the  villages 
any  education  is  of  a  very  primitive  description  and  con- 
fined to  the  winter  months  and  to  children  between  8 
and  13.  It  is  estimated  that  15  per  cent  or  20  per  cent 
of  the  children  are  receiving  some  form  of  effective  ele- 
mentary education. 

It  may,  therefore,  be  questioned  if  the  proportion  of 
children  attending  school  is  greater  than  under  the 
Czars! 


THE  ECONOMIC  COLLAPSE  139 

The  Bolshevists  have  repeatedly  stated  that  the  people 
must  be  made  literate  if  they  are  to  become  useful  sub- 
jects for  Communist  rule ;  this  was  also  the  Prussian  idea 
of  education.  But  the  Communists,  not  to  mention  their 
personal  incapacity,  have  a  system  that  produces  neither 
the  personnel  nor  the  material  for  educational  institu- 
tions of  any  kind.  Far  from  any  sacrifice  being  made  for 
the  children,  education,  literature,  science,  or  art,  all 
these  are  deliberately,  daily  and  unremittingly  sacrificed 
in  order  to  maintain  and,  if  possible,  to  increase  the 
power  of  the  Communist  Party. 

Education  is,  first  of  all,  the  pre-requisite  for  propa- 
ganda. Second,  after  the  individual  has  learned  to  read 
and  write,  education  becomes  propaganda — as  we  may 
see  from  Lenin's  speech  already  quoted: 

The  most  important  point  at  present  for  the  comrades 
?n  the  work  of  culture  and  education  is  that  of  the 
relation  between  education  and  our  political  aim.  In 
bourgeois  society  it  has  always  been,  and  still  is  main- 
tained, that  the  spirit  of  knowledge  is  apolitical,  or 
unpolitical.  This  is  a  piece  of  hypocrisy  on  the  part 
of  the  bourgeoisie,  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  refined 
method  of  deceiving  the  masses,  99  per  cent  of  whom 
are  oppressed  by  the  domination  of  the  church,  of  private 
property,  etc. 

One  of  our  chief  tasks  is  that  of  opposing  to  bourgeois 
deception  and  hypocrisy  our  truth,  and  of  obliging  the 
bourgeoisie  to  recognize  our  truth. 

In  regard  to  family  life  there  is  the  most  rapid  and 
demoralizing  retrogression.  Homes  are  being  broken  up 
and  children,  as  far  as  practicable,  separated  from 
parental  influence  and  placed  in  a  sort  of  orphan  asylum 


>140         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

called  "children's  homes"  or  "boarding  schools."  The 
children  are  not  quite  so  wretchedly  fed  in  these  institu- 
tions as  when  with  their  families  (though  the  reports 
above  quoted  show  they  are  often  starving  even  in  the 
Soviet  "homes") — a  fact  which  naturally  makes  fond 
parents  surrender  them — "voluntarily"  according  to  the 
Bolshevists  and  their  cold-blooded  "liberal"  supporters. 
But  besides  this  "the  theory  of  the  Communist  Party 
that  every  soul  must  give  a  labor  contribution  to  the 
community  carries  with  it  the  implication  that  the  in- 
dividual must  be  freed  from  the  economic  burden  of 
the  family.  Both  men  and  women  are  paid  on  the  basis 
of  the  individual  wage."  (British  Labor  Delegation 
report.) 

So  with  other  "reforms."  All  vital  and  national  im- 
provements are  costly.  Therefore  none  have  been  made, 
and  all  changes  are  either  of  secondary  importance — 
such  as  new  "movies" — or  on  an  utterly  insignificant 
scale  for  a  country  of  the  first  magnitude.  All  claims  to 
the  contrary  are  among  the  clearest  proofs  of  the  bold  and 
unscrupulous  character  of  the  Bolshevist  propaganda. 

The  Bolshevist  leader  himself  does  not  make  any  claim 
of  construction  worth  boasting  about.  He  is  proud  of 
his  work  of  destruction  and  has  said  so  again  and  again. 
All  pre-existing  civilization  is  to  be  destroyed.  As  for 
the  rest  he  is  proud  of  his  resistance  to  those  who  would 
destroy  him.  Reconstruction  can  and  must  wait.  He  is 
very  patient,  as  to  construction,  as  long  as  he  believes 
the  fighting  is  going  his  way: 

In  our  struggle  two  main  factors  are  apparent.  On 
the  one  hand  there  is  the  task  of  destroying,  of  an- 


THE  ECONOMIC  COLLAPSE  141 

nihilating  the  heritage  received  from  the  bourgeois 
regime,  of  suppressing  the  ceaselessly  repeated  attempts 
of  the  bourgeoisie  to  destroy  the  Soviet  power.  This 
task  has  hitherto  taken  up  most  of  our  attention  and 
prevented  us  from  going  about  the  other  task,  that  of 
reconstruction. 

(Speech  at  Political  Education  Conference  November 
5,  1920— from  Soviet  Russia,  April  30,  1921.) 


IX 


WORLD  REVOLUTION;  THE  ATTEMPT  TO  OVER- 
THROW DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENTS 

THE  foundation  of  the  entire  Bolshevist  movement  as 
well  as  the  foreign  policy  of  the  Soviet  Government  is 
world  revolution,  the  overthrow  of  all  existing  govern- 
ments— even  the  most  democratic — all  being  regarded  as 
equally  "capitalistic."  This  is  the  aim  of  the  Russian 
Communist  Party,  which  is  the  Soviet  Government,  and 
also  of  the  Communist  Internationale  which  shapes  the 
Soviet  foreign  policy.  No  compromise  of  this  aim  has 
been  adopted  or  is  even  projected. 

In  the  Bolshevist  view  the  present  is  a  period  of 
closely  connected  wars  and  revolutions,  all  having  a  com- 
mon capitalistic  cause,  and  all  working  towards  the  same 
end,  a  communist  world  state. 

The  increasing  pressure  of  the  proletariat,  particularly 
its  victories  in  some  countries,  strengthens  the  resistance 
of  the  exploiters  and  compels  them  to  create  new  forms 
of  international  capitalist  solidarity  (League  of  Nations, 
etc.)  which,  organizing  the  systematic  exploitation  of 
all  nations  on  a  world  scale,  directs  all  its  efforts  to  the 
immediate  suppression  of  the  revolutionary  movement 
of  the  proletariat  of  all  countries. 

All  this  inevitably  leads  to  the  blending  of  civil  war 
within  various  countries  with  the  defensive  wars  of 
revolutionary  countries,  and  the  struggles  of  oppressed 
nations  against  the  yoke  of  imperialist  states.  (From 

142 


WORLD  REVOLUTION  143 

Programme  of  the  Russian  Communist  Party  (Bol- 
shevists), Adopted  at  the  VHIth  conference  of  the 
Party,  Moscow,  18-23rd  March,  1919,  English  Transla- 
tion Published  by  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Com- 
munist International.) 

The  same  thought  has  been  recently  expressed  by  Trot- 
zky  as  follows  (see  Soviet  Russia,  April  2,  1921) : 

The  international  proletariat  has  set  out  to  seize  the 
power.  Whether  civil  war  is  or  is  not  "in  general" 
one  of  the  indispensable  attributes  of  revolution  "in 
general"  it  is  nevertheless  incontestable  that  the  forward 
movement  of  the  proletariat,  in  Russia,  in  Germany,  and 
in  certain  parts  of  what  was  once  Austria-Hungary,  has 
taken  on  the  form  of  civil  war  to  the  bitter  end.  And 
that  not  only  on  internal  fronts  but  also  on  external 
fronts. 

The  military  part  of  this  program  is  in  abeyance  be- 
cause of  the  failure  of  attempted  Bolshevist  revolutions 
in  neighboring  countries  such  as  Hungary,  Bavaria,  etc., 
and  also  because  of  the  economic  and  military  weakness 
of  the  Soviets,  but  the  Soviet  regime  has  not  overlooked 
a  single  opportunity  to  assault  a  weakened  neighbor,  as 
we  see  from  the  attack  on  Poland  August,  1920,  and  the 
recent  conquest  of  Georgia  and  neighboring  territories. 
The  very  oath  of  the  Red  Army  shows  it  is  regarded  as 
a  force  for  "liberating"  the  world  proletariat.  The 
following  clauses  of  the  oath  are  quoted  from  the  report 
of  the  Russian  delegation  of  the  British  Labor  Party: 

Before  the  working  classes  of  Russia  and  the  whole 
world,  I  undertake  to  carry  this  name  with  honour,  to 
follow  the  military  calling  with  conscience  and  to  pre- 


144         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

serve  from  damage  and  robbery  the  national  and  military 
possessions  as  the  hair  of  my  head. 

I  undertake  to  abstain  from  and  to  deter  any  act  liable 
to  dishonour  the  name  of  citizens  of  the  Soviet  Republic ; 
moreover  to  direct  all  my  deeds  and  thoughts  to  the 
Great  Aim  of  Liberation  of  all  Workers. 

The  effort  of  the  Soviet  "Government"  through  its 
Third  Internationale  to  foment  revolutions  throughout 
the  world  continues.  Its  first  aim  is  revolution  now. 
Where  this  is  impracticable  the  aim  becomes  to  build 
up  a  revolutionary  movement  prepared  to  attempt  a 
revolution  within  a  very  few  years.  The  immediate  pur- 
pose, in  that  case,  is  to  undermine  all  governments, 
destroy  all  non-Bolshevist  labor  organizations,  and  to 
make  converts  who  may  be  relied  upon  not  only  to  give 
the  Russian  Soviet  Government  moral  support  but  to 
obey  all  the  revolutionary  orders  it  issues.  While  the 
world  revolution  policy  has  failed  to  create  revolutions, 
it  has  succeeded  in  very  large  measure  in  all  these 
secondary  objects.  It  has  therefore  been  a  great  success 
from  the  Bolshevist  standpoint,  and  this  is  the  view  of 
all  the  Bolshevist  leaders. 

In  making  trade  agreements  and  other  treaties  the 
Bolshevist  diplomats  find  it  suits  their  purpose  to  make 
a  wholesale  denial  of  the  entire  world  revolution  policy, 
and  they  have  made  these  denials  very  frequently  from 
the  beginning.  A  few  weeks  before  the  Second  Congress 
of  the  Third  Internationale,  where  the  policy  of  world 
revolution  was  brought  into  its  most  complete  form, 
Kalinin,  President  of  the  Central  Executive  Committee 
of  the  Soviets,  issued  a  statement  to  Poland  in  which  he 
claimed  that  the  Russian  Communists  "never  attempted 


WORLD  REVOLUTION  145 

and  are  not  going  to  attempt  to  bring  in  Communism 
in  foreign  countries. ' '  Within  ninety  days  of  this  state- 
ment the  Bolshevist  authorities  made  repeated  declara- 
tions of  their  purpose  to  set  up  a  Soviet  government 
in  Poland  by  force  of  arms.  And  when  Trotzky,  as 
War  Lord,  was  in  Bialystock,  in  northeastern  Poland,  he 
even  assumed  that  Sovietism  would  rapidly  spread  from 
Poland  to  the  entire  world.  " Bolshevism,"  he  said, 
"was  more  powerful  than  ever  and  would  soon  spread 
to  other  countries."  "In  a  year, "/he  continued,  "all 
Europe  will  be  bolshevist." 

When  we  see  how  totally  false  was  the  statement  of 
the  President  of  the  Soviets  we  may  begin  to  realize 
the  complete  worthlessness  of  other  statements  of  the 
Bolshevist  diplomats  and,  in  fact,  of  all  their  public 
declarations  issued  for  foreign  consumption.  The  Com- 
munist Government  of  Russia  has  now  entered  into 
solemn  agreement  with  Great  Britain  not  to  carry  on 
revolutionary  propaganda  in  British  territory.  Any 
such  agreement,  along  with  all  other  promises  of  the 
Soviets,  was  denounced  by  Secretary  Colby  as  wholly 
worthless  in  view  of  their  faithless  record  and  their 
revolutionary  operations  through  the  Third  Internation- 
ale. Secretary  Colby  said  (in  his  note  of  August  10, 
1920) : 

The  responsible  leaders  of  the  regime  have  frequently 
and  openly  boasted  that  they  are  willing  to  sign  agree- 
ments and  undertakings  with  foreign  powers  while  not 
having  the  slightest  intention  of  observing  such  under- 
takings or  carrying  out  such  agreements. 

Moreover,  it  is  within  the  knowledge  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  that  the  Bolshevist  Govern- 


146         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

ment  is  itself  subject  to  the  control  of  a  political  faction 
with  extensive  international  ramifications  through  the 
Third  Internationale,  and  that  this  body,  which  is  heavily 
subsidized  by  the  Bolshevist  Government  from  the  public 
revenues  of  Russia,  has  for  its  openly  avowed  aim  the 
promotion  of  Bolshevist  revolutions  throughout  the 
world.  The  leaders  of  the  Bolsheviki  have  boasted  that 
their  promises  of  non-interference  with  other  nations 
would  in  nowise  bind  the  agents  of  this  body. 

The  preamble  to  the  Soviet  constitution  declares  that 
one  of  the  main  objects  in  forming  a  Soviet  government 
is  to  use  it  "for  the  victory  of  socialism  in  all  lands." 
In  the  preamble  of  the  constitution  of  the  Communist 
Internationale  we  find  the  following: 

The  object  of  the  Communist  International  is  a  strug- 
gle with  force  of  arms  for  the  suppression  of  the  inter- 
national bourgeoisie,  and  the  creation  of  an  International 
Soviet  Republic,  as  a  transitional  stage  for  the  complete 
suppression  of  the  State. 

At  its  Second  Congress,  July,  1920,  this  Internationale 
expressed  itself  even  more  strongly: 

The  Communist  International  fully  and  unreservedly 
upholds  the  gains  of  the  great  proletarian  revolution  in 
Russia,  the  first  victorious  socialist  revolution  in  the 
world's  history,  and  calls  upon  all  workers  to  follow 
the  same  road.  The  Communist  International  makes  it 
its  duty  to  support  by  all  the  power  at  its  disposal  every 
Soviet  Republic  wherever  it  may  be  formed. 

Among  the  "slogans"  of  the  dominating  Russian 
Communist  Party  presented  at  that  gathering  were 
these: 


WORLD  REVOLUTION  147 

Through  the  III  International  to  the  world  dictator- 
ship of  the  proletariat,  and  through  the  dictatorship  of 
the  proletariat  to  the  abolition  of  classes  and  the  most 
complete  liberation  of  mankind. 

Long  live  the  III  International,  which  is  fighting  to 
establish  an  International  Soviet  of  Workmen's  Deputies. 


The  most  important  action  taken  at  this  congress  was 
the  formulation  of  the  "twenty-one  points."  The  send- 
ing of  these  points  as  an  ultimatum  to  all  the  socialist 
parties  of  Europe  had  the  following  results: 

First,  the  powerful  Independent  Socialist  Party  in 
Germany  was  split  and  the  majority  faction  entered  the 
Third  Internationale,  accepting  the  domination  of  Mos- 
cow and  all  the  twenty-one  points. 

Second,  the  same  result  occurred  in  the  congress  of 
the  French  Socialist  Party  in  December,  1920. 

Third,  a  powerful  element  in  the  Italian  Socialist 
Party  took  the  same  action  in  the  middle  of  February, 
the  remainder  of  the  party  also  adhering  to  the  Third 
Internationale  but  demanding  a  certain  measure  of 
autonomy.  Similar  results  occurred  in  other  European 
countries.  A  powerful  group  of  socialist  and  labor  or- 
ganizations, refusing  to  repudiate  or  condemn  the  Com- 
munist Internationale,  also  decided  not  to  enter  into  it 
at  the  present  moment  but  to  attempt  to  form  a  new 
international  organization  in  which  the  communist  par- 
ties are  to  be  an  important  part. 

Thus  the  effort  of  the  communists  to  control  the 
socialist  parties  of  Europe  has  made  considerable  prog- 
ress within  the  last  year,  though  failing  to  capture  the 
movement  as  a  whole  and  failing  also  to  convert  the 


148          OUT   OF   THEIR   OWN   MOUTHS 

majority  of  labor  unionists,  with  the  possible  exception 
of  Italy. 

The  revolutionary  communist  movement  directed  from 
Moscow  is,  then,  a  formidable  force  on  the  continent  of 
Europe.  Let  us  now  recall  that  among  the  most  im- 
portant of  the  twenty-one  revolutionary  points  accepted 
by  all  adhering  organizations  are  the  following: 

In  almost  all  the  countries  of  Europe  and  America  the 
class  war  is  entering  the  phase  of  civil  war.  Under  such 
conditions  Communists  can  have  no  confidence  in  bour- 
geois legality.  They  are  bound  to  create  everywhere 
a  parallel  illegal  organization,  which  at  the  decisive  mo- 
ment will  help  the  party  to  fulfil  its  duty  towards  the 
Revolution.  .  .  . 

All  decisions  of  the  Congress  of  the  Communist  Inter- 
national, as  also  the  decisions  of  its  Executive  Commit- 
tee, are  binding  for  all  parties  belonging  to  the  Com- 
munist International. 

When  in  the  Martens  case  ex-Secretary  of  Labor, 
W.  B.  Wilson,  decided  that  the  Russian  Communist 
Party  was  an  organization  that  "  advocates  the  over- 
throw by  violence  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,"  the  Administration  had  every  possible  docu- 
mentary evidence  to  prove  its  case. 

Naturally  the  belief  of  the  Bolshevists  in  impending 
revolt  fluctuates  with  their  victories  and  defeats.  But 
the  utility  to  the  Soviet  Government  of  revolutionary 
agitation  and  revolutionary  propaganda  and  violence  in 
all  countries  continues  regardless  of  such  contingencies. 
We  have  noted  Trotzky's  optimism  when  his  armies  were 
in  Poland.  Again,  when  the  armies  of  General  Wrangel 
were  overthrown  in  November,  1920,  Lenin  declared: 


WORLD  REVOLUTION  149 

This  triumph  of  bolshevism  is  the  most  gigantic  ever 
dreamed  of,  but  the  victory  is  incomplete  until  every 
part  of  Europe  has  been  revolutionized. 

A  month  later,  in  an  open  letter  to  the  Italian  social- 
ists quoted  in  Pravda,  December  10,  1920,  Lenin  fear- 
ing that  the  revolutionary  movement  which  began  in  the 
seizure  of  factories  by  the  Italian  metal  workers  might 
be  checked  by  the  refusal  of  foreign  capitalists  to  furnish 
the  indispensable  coal  and  iron,  gave  this  advice : 

Hasten  the  revolution  in  England,  in  France,  in 
America  if  these  countries  decide  to  blockade  the  pro- 
letariat of  the  Italian  Proletarian  Republic. 

At  the  National  Congress  of  the  Soviets  on  December 
23,  the  leading  economic  authority  among  the  Commis- 
saries, Rykoff,  said  (See  Pravda,  December  25) : 

With  the  possibility  of  international  relations  and  the 
coming  communistic  revolution  in  western  Europe,  and 
since  we  are  nearing  our  chief  aim,  the  European  con- 
gress of  Soviets,  we  have  to  direct  our  attention  to  the 
development  of  those  branches  of  our  economic  life  which 
will  come  to  our  lot  in  the  case  of  distribution  of  work 
among  ourselves  and  western  soviet  Europe. 

We  must  note  in  these  expressions  that  the  Bolshevists 
find  no  contradiction  between  the  movement  for  a  trade 
agreement  and  the  continued  movement  for  world  revolt. 
Indeed,  Lenin  has  advocated  arrangements  with  foreign 
capitalists  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  Bolshevik 
regime,  during  the  period  of  the  revolutions  in  Hungary 
and  Bavaria,  as  well  as  the  wars  of  conquest  against 


150         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

the  border  states,  and  during  all  the  revolutionary  plots 
set  on  foot  by  the  Third  Internationale. 

In  a  speech  (quoted  in  Pravda,  November  30,  1920) 
Lenin  explains: 

We  have  found  the  right  way  to  revolution,  but  this 
way  is  not  a  direct  one ;  it  runs  in  zig  zags. 

In  the  letter  to  the  Italian  communists  already  quoted 
Lenin  advises  them  that  in  order  to  bring  the  country 
to  revolution  at  the  earliest  possible  moment — which  he 
believes  will  be  very  soon  in  Italy — it  is  necessary  to 
move  first  to  the  right  and  then  to  the  left.  The  failure 
of  the  Italian  revolutionary  movement  in  October  and 
of  the  German  revolutionary  movement  in  March  led 
Lenin  to  propose  one  of  his  momentary  zig  zags  or  move- 
ments to  the  right.  The  date  for  the  big  revolutionary 
movements  in  Europe  has  been  postponed  for  a  year  or 
two.  As  Trotzky  is  reported  recently  to  have  declared : 

The  proletarian  revolution  in  America  and  Europe 
will  be  found  if  not  in  the  approaching  months  then 
in  the  approaching  years. 

Touching  upon  the  same  subject  at  the  International 
Communist  Congress  in  July,  1920,  Zinovieff  trucu- 
lently exclaimed: 

"Well,  what  about  it?"  we  shall  say  to  every  bour- 
geois: "Yes,  perhaps  we  were  wrong;  not  one  year,  but 
two  or  three  will  be  necessary  for  all  Europe  to  become 
Soviet.  You  still  have  a  short  period  of  grace  before 
you  will  be  destroyed.  But  if  you  have  now  become 
so  modest  that  you  rejoice  at  these  few  months  of  grace, 


WORLD  REVOLUTION  151 

or  a  few  years,  then  we,  in  any  case,  congratulate  you 
on  your  unusual  modesty." 

It  is  the  belief,  however,  of  Zinovieff  and  of  all  the 
Bolshevist  leaders  that  even  if  revolutions  are  not  ma- 
terializing very  rapidly  or  as  speedily  as  expected  that 
the  revolutionary  movement  which  is  so  valuable  to  the 
communists  in  other  particulars  is  continuing  to  spread 
and  that  because  of  it  they  can  rely  more  and  more 
upon  support  and  aid  in  one  form  or  another  from 
the  entire  labor  movement  of  Europe.  In  other  words, 
they  believe  that  their  propaganda  is  bearing  more  and 
more  fruit — and  there  is  much  to  support  their  view.  In 
an  article  in  the  Petrograd  Pravda,  November  7,  1920, 
Zinovieff  wrote: 

Three  years  ago,  we  were  absolutely  alone  on  the  inter- 
national arena.  We  know  and  believed  that  the  inter- 
national proletariat  would  understand  and  appreciate 
our  movements,  and  would  be  with  us.  But  at  the  same 
time  we  could  not  fail  to  see  that  at  that  time  the  inter- 
tional  proletariat  as  yet  was  not  with  us. 

And  how  all  this  has  now  been  radically  changed! 
Yes,  the  International  Proletarian  Revolution  is  devel- 
oping much  less  rapidly  than  we  had  wished.  But 
never-the-less  it  moves  forward. 

Why  have  the  Imperialist  giants,  the  robber  League  of 
Nations,  and  the  very  rich  and  blood-thirsty  bourgeoisie 
of  England,  France,  and  America  failed  to  date  to  de- 
stroy the  single  proletarian  Republic — Soviet  Russia? 
But  they  did  not  do  this  solely  because  the  working  class 
of  Europe  and  America  is  in  its  heart  behind  us. 

The  Bolshevist  leaders  realize  and  confess  that  the 
strength  of  their  movement  in  Russia  is  very  largely 


152         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

due  to  the  support  they  have  obtained  from  certain 
elements  of  labor  outside  of  Russia.  For  in  addition 
to  the  European  revolutionary  parties  and  factions 
already  referred  to  other  more  or  less  neutral  labor 
bodies  have  undoubtedly  given  them  very  valuable  moral 
and  defensive  support. 

All  the  successes  of  Soviet  policy,  to  whatever  ex- 
traneous causes  they  may  be  due,  are  attributed  by  the 
Bolshevists  to  the  merit  of  their  foreign  propaganda 
and  the  invincibility  of  their  international  movement. 
This  may  be  seen  from  a  speech  delivered  by  Lenin 
at  a  convention  of  the  Communist  Party  in  Moscow 
(Krasnaya  Gazetta,  November  23,  1920) : 

The  world  revolution,  by  whose  aid  alone  we  can  win, 
does  not  mature  at  the  speed  with  which  we  hoped  for 
in  the  beginning. 

But  we  have  obtained  not  merely  a  breathing  spell, 
but  the  possibility  of  existing  amidst  bourgeois  countries. 
This  means  that  the  revolution  has  already  matured 
within  those  countries. 

After  a  period  of  three  years,  the  Imperialists  are 
compelled  to  give  up  their  struggle  against  Russia  which 
has,  in  comparison  with  their  own  military  resources, 
practically  none. 

Our  foes,  burning  with  desire  to  crush  us  by  armed 
force,  are  now  compelled  to  conclude  agreements  with 
us,  and  to  contribute  to  our  consolidation  and  strength- 
ening. 

At  the  Communist  Congress  earlier  in  the  year  Lenin 
had  said  (see  Soviet  Russia,  August  23,  1920) : 

We  not  only  won  over  to  our  side  the  workers  of  all 
countries,  but  also  succeeded  in  winning  the  bourgeoisie 


WORLD  REVOLUTION  153 

of  the  small  countries,  for  the  imperialists  oppress  not 
only  the  workers  of  their  countries  but  also  the  bour- 
geoisie of  the  small  nations.  You  know  how  we  "won 
over  the  wavering  middle  class  within  the  advanced 
countries. 

This  absolute  disintegration  of  our  adversaries  who 
were  sure  of  their  power,  shows  that  they  are  but  a 
handful  of  capitalist  beasts  at  odds  among  themselves 
and  absolutely  powerless  to  fight  us. 

Here  the  Bolshevist  chief  discloses  the  secret  of  such 
"success"  as  he  has  been  able  to  attain  throughout 
the  world:  his  propaganda  has  succeeded  in  deceiving 
not  only  a  large  number  of  workingmen  but  also  con- 
siderable elements  of  the  middle  classes. 

Taking  up  some  remarks  of  Lenin's  at  the  Tenth 
Congress  of  the  Socialist  Russian  Party  in  March,  1921, 
the  Bolshevist  press  of  America,  assisted  by  pro-Bol- 
shevist "liberal"  publications,  by  the  yellow  press,  and 
by  commercially  directed  newspapers  blinded  by  short- 
sighted greed,  all  joined  together  to  claim  that  he  had 
abandoned  world  revolution  together  with  communism 
and  all  the  other  foundations  of  Bolshevism.  What 
Lenin  actually  said  was:  "Were  we  to  suppose  that 
presently  we  would  get  help  in  the  form  of  a  firmly 
established  proletarian  revolution,  we  would  be  lunatics, ' ' 
this  speech  being  made  in  answer  to  a  very  small  group 
of  ultra-extremists  who  opposed  trade  agreements,  not 
realizing  that  they  were  entirely  consistent  with  the 
policy  of  world  revolution.  Lenin's  words  are  very 
carefully  chosen.  He  does  not  say  that  help  from  a 
proletarian  revolution  is  not  to  be  expected;  he  says 
only  that  early  help  from  "a  firmly  established"  pro- 
letarian revolution  cannot  be  counted  upon.  In  other 


154         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

words,  he  still  expects  the  revolutionary  movement  to 
develop  with  steadily  increasing  intensity  and  to  reach 
such  a  point  that  it  will  be  helpful  to  the  Soviets,  even 
economically,  before  the  lapse  of  many  years. 

Eeferring  to  the  question  of  world  revolution,  Lenin 
said: 

Aid  is  coming  from  the  Western  European  countries. 
It  is  not  coming  as  fast  as  we  should  like  it,  but  it  is 
coming  nevertheless  and  gathering  strength.  Of  course, 
the  world  revolution  has  made  a  great  step  forward,  in 
comparison  with  last  year.  We  have  learned  to  under- 
stand during  the  last  three  years  that  basing  ourselves 
on  an  international  revolution  does  not  mean  calculating 
on  a  definite  date,  and  that  the  increasing  rapidity  of 
development  may  bring  a  revolution  in  the  spring 
(1921)  or  it  may  not.  Of  course,  the  Communist  In- 
ternational which  last  year  existed  merely  in  the  form 
of  proclamations  is  now  existing  as  an  independent  party 
in  every  country.  ...  In  Germany,  France  and  Italy 
the  Communist  International  has  become  not  only  the 
centre  of  the  labor  movement  but  the  focus  of  attention 
for  the  whole  political  life  of  those  countries.  This  is 
our  conquest,  and  no  one  can  deprive  us  of  it.  The 
world  revolution  is  growing  stronger,  while  the  economic 
crisis  in  Europe  is  getting  worse  at  the  same  time. 

But,  at  any  rate,  were  we  to  draw  from  this  the 
conclusion  that  help  would  come  from  there  within  a 
brief  period  in  the  shape  of  a  solid  proletarian  revolu- 
tion, we  would  be  simply  lunatics;  but  in  this  hall,  I 
feel  certain,  there  are  none  such.  We  must,  therefore, 
know  how  to  adapt  our  activity  to  the  mutual  class 
relations  existing  within  our  own  and  other  countries, 
that  we  may  be  able  for  a  long  time  to  retain  the 
dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  and,  at  least  gradually, 
to  cure  all  the  ills  and  crises  besetting  us.  Only  such 
a  view  of  the  problem  will  be  correct  and  sober. 
(Pravda,  March  10,  1921.)' 


WORLD  REVOLUTION  155 

Surely  all  this  is  a  far  cry  from  "abandoning  the 
world  revolution!" 

It  was  as  late  as  July,  1920,  that  the  Third  Internation- 
ale declared  that ' '  in  nearly  every  country  of  Europe  and 
America  the  class  struggle  is  entering  upon  the  phase 
of  civil  war — while  as  late  as  December  (1920)  it  con- 
verted the  French  Socialist  majority  to  that  view. 
Discouraging  and  encouraging  events  have  taken  place 
since  that  time,  but  the  total  result  of  all  revolu- 
tionary movements  during  recent  months  is  far  from 
such  as  to  discourage  visionary  fanatics  like  the  Bol- 
shevists. At  the  meeting  of  March  15  Kameneff  made 
a  report  on  foreign  policy  to  the  Tenth  Congress  of 
the  Russian  Communist  Party: 

"We  must  consider,"  began  Kameneff,  "our  relations 
with  the  capitalist  states,  seeing  that  our  supposition 
of  the  speedy  assistance  which  should  come  to  us  from 
Western  Europe  in  the  form  of  a  world  revolution  has 
not  been  carried  out  with  the  rapidity  for  which  we 
hoped.  Though  counting  on  the  world  revolution,  we 
must  shape  our  practical  policy  in  such  a  way  that  it 
will  be  possible  to  take  action  at  any  time,  should  the 
course  of  world  development  force  us  to  fight  for  the 
existence  of  our  isolated  Soviet  Republic. 

The  words  italicized  again  give  a  very  satisfactory 
portrayal  of  the  precise  state  of  the  Bolshevist  mind 
as  regards  world  revolution.  The  rest  of  this  speech 
develops  the  grounds  for  the  Bolshevist  hopes.  While 
indicating  the  usual  state  of  extreme  ignorance,  these 
remarks  are  important  as  showing  the  pro-German  pre- 
judices, the  hatred  of  America  and  England,  the  ex- 
pectation of  the  Bolshevists  that  they  will  participate  in 
future  wars  (it  is  strange  that  the  pacifist  extremists 


156         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 
/- 

insist  upon  continuing  their  support  of  these  militaristic 
and  imperialistic  fanatics)  and  also  the  willingness  of  the 
Soviets  to  arm  the  Asiatic  against  the  European  races. 
Kftmeneff  continues: 

The  great  Powers  have  gained  their  end.  They  have 
succeeded  in  dividing  up  the  world  between  them.  The 
victorious  powers  have  not  only  subjugated  colonies  and 
semi-colonies,  but  many  countries  such  as  Austria  and 
Germany,  are  entirely  dependent  on  them.  A  small 
party  of  the  richest  countries  has  divided  up  the  world, 
converting  the  most  cultured  countries  in  Europe,  Ger- 
many and  Austria,  into  their  enslaved  vassals. 

The  danger  of  a  new  world  war  is  arising.  The  strug- 
gle will  be  for  the  possession  of  the  shores  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean  and  will  take  place  between  the  former  Allies, 
England  and  America,  while  Japan  will  support  Eng- 
land. It  may  be  presumed  that  all  the  capitalist  states 
will  again  be  involved  in  this  new  struggle,  only  a  rising 
of  the  world  proletariat  can  prevent  this  new  world 
catastrophe. 

Soviet  Russia  took  no  part  in  the  division  of  the 
world.  Thanks  to  the  three  years'  war  Soviet  Russia 
gained  the  right  to  an  independent  existence.  This  in- 
dependence will  make  it  possible  for  us  to  take  up  sides 
in  the  various  historical  events  of  the  world.  .  .  . 

Soviet  Russia  is  not  isolated.  Soviet  Russia  only  in 
the  "West  borders  on  capitalist  states.  In  the  East  her 
neighbour  is  truly  revolutionary  Asia.  The  fact  that 
we  still  exist  is  explained  by  the  circumstance  that  a 
balance  of  power  has  been  created  between  capitalist 
Europe  and  revolutionary  Asia.  Soviet  Russia  is  situ- 
ated half  way  between  the  East  and  West. 

In  a  long  communication  to  the  Independent  Labor 
Party  the  Third  Internationale  last  summer  outlined 
another  war — this  time  it  was  a  war  of  the  world  against 


WORLD  REVOLUTION  157 

Great  Britain  and  America.    This  also  is  a  war  from 
which  the  Bolshevists  hoped  to  gain: 

It  is  probable  that  when  throwing  off  the  chains  of 
the  capitalist  Governments,  the  revolutionary  proletariat 
of  Europe  will  meet  the  resistance  of  Anglo-Saxon  capi- 
tal in  the  persons  of  British  and  American  capitalists, 
who  will  attempt  to  blockade  it.  It  is  then  possible  the 
revolutionary  proletariat  of  Europe  will  arise  in  union 
with  the  peoples  of  the  East  and  commence  a  revolu- 
tionary struggle,  the  scene  of  which  will  be  the  entire 
world,  to  deal  the  final  blow  at  British  and  American 
capitalists. 

The  pro-German  tendency  of  the  propaganda  is  al- 
ways in  evidence.  The  Bolshevists  are  particularly 
friendly  to  the  Germans  in  the  attack  on  the  Versailles 
Treaty.  We  may  see  an  illustration  of  this  in  a  speech 
of  Lenin's  early  in  1920: 

The  Germans  are,  above  all,  our  auxiliaries  because 
their  hope  of  escaping  from  the  penal  clauses  of  the 
Peace  treaty  rests  on  causing  disorder  and  agitation 
with  a  view  to  profit  by  the  general  confusion  which 
will  then  arise.  They  seek  revenge — we  revolution. 

This  friendliness  to  the  German  junkers  is  also  seen 
in  a  statement  of  Trotzky  when  he  was  at  the  Polish 
front : 

It  is  said  that  the  Russian  communists  were  the  serfs 
of  the  Prussian  junkers,  but  that  must  not  weigh  with 
us.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  organized  Germany 
constitutes  a  danger  to  world  imperialism,  and  nothing 
must  oppose  an  understanding  with  Germany  for  the 
destruction  of  the  imperialist  governments  of  Europe. 


'158         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

We  prefer  such  an  understanding  to  fraternization  with 
the  so-called  free  countries. 

At  the  same  time  the  Bolshevists  have  endeavored  to 
line  up  for  war  upon  England  and  France,  alongside  the 
junkers,  the  junkers'  bitter  enemies,  the  German  com- 
munists. 

The  revolutionary  German  socialist  leader  Crispien, 
just  returned  from  a  visit  to  Russia  at  the  invitation 
of  the  Soviets  declared: 

The  Russian  Soviet  Government  intended  to  make  war 
on  France  if  the  Polish  campaign  had  been  successful, 
and  England  also  would  have  been  attacked.  The  Soviets 
were  counting  on  the  aid  of  the  German  communists." 
(From  Crispien 's  speech  at  the  Halle  Congress  of  the 
Independent  Socialist  Party — October  13,  1920.) 

While  the  Soviets  rely  largely  upon  wars  out  of  which 
revolutions  are  expected  to  arise,  they  rely  still  more 
upon  the  direct  results  of  revolutionary  propaganda  and 
organization  through  the  Third  Internationale.  Their 
complicity  in  the  German  revolutionary  movement  of 
March,  1921,  for  example,  is  proved  by  the  open  asser- 
tions of  the  Moscow  communist  organ  in  Berlin,  Die 
Rote  Fahne. 

In  spite  of  such  absolutely  conclusive  evidence  and 
of  innumerable  other  instances  of  equally  stupid  Bolshe- 
vist duplicity  several  entirely  conservative  non-Bolshe- 
vist newspapers  in  America  and  England  insisted  that 
it  was  incredible  that  Moscow  could  at  the  same  time  be 
instigating  revolutions  and  seeking  trade  by  govern- 
mental agreements! 


X 

THE    COMMUNIST   INTERNATIONALE 

THE  Third  Internationale  is  the  child  of  the  Russian 
Communist  Party.  It  was  created  here,  in  the  Kremlin 
on  the  initiative  of  the  Communist  Party  of  Russia.  The 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Third  Internationale  is  in 
our  own  hands.  (Report  of  Radek,  Secretary  of  Third 
Internationale,  to  Ninth  Congress  of  Russian  Communist 
Party— Pravda,  April  3rd,  1920.) 

At  the  Second  Congress  of  the  Communist  Interna- 
tionale held,  at  Moscow  in  August,  1920,  the  following 
resolution  was  passed: 

The  World  Congress  is  the  supreme  organ  of  the  Com- 
munist International. 

The  World  Congress  elects  an  Executive  Committee 
of  the  Communist  International  which  serves  as  the  lead- 
ing organ  in  the  intervals  between  the  (annual)  World 
Congresses. 

In  his  report  to  the  Congress,  President  Zinoviev 
further  explained  the  dictatorial  powers  possessed  by 
the  Moscow  Executive: 

The  Congress  has  also  emphasized  the  need  of  a  united 
Communist  International  organization  and  has  worked 
out  its  statute,  according  to  which  the  executive  com- 
mittee of  the  III  International  is  given  very  wide  powers, 

159 


160         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

including  that  of  expelling  from  the  International  a 
whole  party  for  violation  of  discipline. 

Another  resolution  passed  unanimously  by  the  Con- 
gress indicated  that  the  control  of  the  Russian  Commu- 
nist Party  over  this  world  revolutionary  movement  is 
absolute.  This  resolution  declared: 

The  need  of  a  strong  world  unity  of  the  proletariat 
is  too  evident  to  allow  discussion  of  any  kind  of  autonomy. 

Although  there  are  "only"  five  Russians  on  the  Inter- 
national Executive  Committee,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  all 
the  other  ten  members  were  practically  appointed  by 
the  Russian  Bolshevists  and  their  names  indicate  ab- 
solute subserviency,  since  with  one  or  two  exceptions 
they  have  little  or  no  representative  capacity.  For 
example,  the  late  John  Reed  was  selected  to  represent 
America!  With  the  sole  exception  of  Italy,  only  the 
most  extreme  of  extremists  were  chosen.  Moreover  the 
permanent  bureau  or  directing  body  of  the  Executive 
Committee  consists  of  three  Russians  out  of  five  mem- 
bers: Zinoviev,  Bukharin  and  Radek. 

This  body  now  claims  to  have  the  sole  right  to  repre- 
sent the  proletariat  of  the  world  and  in  their  name  pro- 
poses to  overthrow  all  governments !  Revolutionists  who 
do  not  obey  orders,  such  as  d'Arragona,  head  of  the  Con- 
federation of  Labor  of  Italy,  are  immediately  branded 
as  traitors  to  the  working-class. 

The  application  of  this  principle  of  the  divine  right 
of  the  Russian  Bolshevists  to  control  "the  world  revolu- 
tion" was  amusingly  represented  at  the  Congress  in  the 


THE  COMMUNIST  INTERNATIONALE    161 

speeches  of  Lenin  dealing  with,  the  revolutionary  move- 
ment in  Great  Britain.  Here  are  some  passages,  as 
reported  in  the  Bolshevist  press: 

Lenin  protests  against  the  supposition  that  the  pecu- 
liar situation  of  the  English  labor  movement  requires 
that  the  decision  as  to  the  line  of  conduct  of  the  British 
Socialist  Party  should  be  left  in  the  latter 's  free  judg- 
ment. Lenin  does  not  understand  why  in  such  a  case 
this  Congress  and  this  International  are  necessary. 

Such  tactics  should  be  considered  one  of  the  worst 
traditions  left  by  the  activity  of  the  II  International. 
The  2nd  Congress  of  the  III  International  will,  of  course, 
act  differently  and  will  discuss  in  detail  in  the  proper 
committee  all  the  conditions  of  the  English  labor  move- 
ment and  the  tasks  resulting  therefrom.  .  .  . 

Despite  the  opinion  of  Comrade  MacLean,  the  Labor 
Party  does  not  express  the  political  state  of  mind  of 
the  working  class  of  England  as  organized  in  trade- 
unions;  it  expresses  the  views  and  state  of  mind  of  its 
leaders,  who  are  the  most  bourgeois,  reactionary  hand- 
maid of  British  Imperialism.  It  is  necessary  that  the 
party  should  effectively  represent  the  ideology  and  in- 
terests of  the  proletariat.  .  .  . 

Furthermore,  these  traitors  are  at  the  head  of  the 
Labor  Party  which  presents  an  unprecedented  situation, 
for  the  latter  expresses  the  political  will  of  4,000,000 
workmen  organized  in  its  ranks.  .  .  . 

You  are  constantly  speaking  of  the  differences  between 
the  conditions  in  England  and  those  in  other  countries. 
In  so  far  as  you  enter  the  Communist  International,  you 
must  remember  that  you  must  be  guided  not  only  by 
the  experience  of  England  but  also  by  general  revolu- 
tionary experience. 

After  the  speech  of  Comrade  Lenin  the  theses  are  put 
to  a  vote.  Comrade  Zinoviev  proposed  to  vote  first,  and 
separately,  on  the  thesis  relating  to  the  entrance  of  the 


162         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

British  Socialist  Party  into  the  Independent  Labor 
Party  of  England.  This  Thesis  is  adopted  by  a  majority 
of  48  to  34  with  two  abstaining. 

This  amazing  act  of  coercion  against  the  left  wing  of 
British  labor,  as  the  vote  shows,  was  almost  too  much 
even  for  the  hand-picked  and  thoroughly  disciplined 
delegates  of  the  Communist  Internationale.  Lenin's 
plan  to  capture  the  Independent  Labor  Party  in  this 
manner  was,  doubtless,  not  quite  so  wild  as  the  plan  of 
the  British  Communist  delegates  who  were  voted  down. 
These  latter  wished  to  attack  not  only  the  British  Labor 
Party,  though  it  is  pro-Soviet  in  its  foreign  policy,  but 
also  the  revolutionary  Independent  Labor  Party  which 
expresses  the  warmest  admiration  for  Sovietism — in 
Russia,  but  does  not  wish  to  have  it  in  England  and 
will  not  take  orders  from  Moscow  further  than  leaving 
the  Second  and  Socialist  Internationale  at  Moscow's 
suggestion.  Lenin's  tactics  on  the  surface  were  some- 
what less  impractical.  But  they  were  futile  in  any  event 
as  the  Independent  Labor  Party,  at  its  succeeding  con- 
gress, repudiated  Communism  by  an  overwhelming  ma- 
jority, leading  to  the  secession  of  the  small  minority  of 
Communists — as  ordered  by  Lenin  for  all  countries. 
Whether,  from  the  Communist-revolutionary  standpoint, 
this  outcome  in  Great  Britain  justified  Lenin's  tactics 
or  not,  the  British  Communists  were  allowed  little  to 
say  on  the  subject. 

The  autocratic  control  of  Moscow  is  the  key  to  the 
tactics  of  the  Third  Internationale.  The  Communists 
are  unanimously  agreed  that  if  it  is  to  succeed  their 
revolution  must  be  a  world  revolution.  They  are  unan- 
imously agreed  that  it  must  therefore  have  a  highly 


THE  COMMUNIST  INTERNATIONALE    163 

centralized  control.  They  are  equally  agreed  that  Soviet 
Russia  is  the  only  "proletarian"  country  to-day,  that 
it  has  led  the  world  in  revolutionary  tactics,  that  it  has 
started  the  world  revolution  and  organized  the  only 
genuinely  proletarian  internationale.  They  are  agreed, 
too,  that  the  iron  dictatorship  established  in  Soviet  Rus- 
sia and  within  the  Russian  Communist  Party  furnishes 
a  model  for  the  international  organization. 

This  is  the  feeling  of  the  extreme  revolutionists  and 
communists  of  all  countries.  But  Moscow  goes  much 
farther.  It  feels  that  the  fate  of  Soviet  Russia  carries 
with  it  the  fate  of  the  world  revolution  and  that  there- 
fore all  that  pertains  to  its  safety  and  welfare  must  be 
given  first  consideration.  It  feels  that  as  the  light  has 
come  from  Soviet  Russia  the  light  must  continue  to  come 
from  Soviet  Russia.  It  feels  that  Russia  has  already 
experienced  what  other  countries  must  experience.  Rus- 
sia is  the  older  sister,  the  others  must  follow  in  her 
foot-steps.  None  of  these  ideas  are  shared  even  by  the 
extremists  of  other  countries.  Lenin  sometimes  says, 
and  possibly  believes,  he  is  allowing  for  the  divergencies 
of  other  countries  and  treating  them  as  equals.  But 
this  is  scarcely  consonant  with  his  astounding  twenty-one 
points,  by  which  he  drove  away  even  such  ardent  and 
docile  supporters  as  the  leaders  of  the  Italian  Socialists. 
His  real  state  of  mind  is  portrayed  in  his  speech  before 
the  All-Russian  Political  Education  Conference  (Novem- 
ber 5th,  1920),  in  which  he  said: 

The  union  of  all  great  capitalist  countries  of  the  world 
against  Russia,  against  Soviet  Russia — this  is  the  whole 
business  of  the  present  international  political  situation, 
and  we  must  be  entirely  clear  as  to  the  fact  that  the 


164         OUT   OF  THEIR   OWN   MOUTHS 

fate  of  hundreds  of  millions  of  workers  in  the  capitalist 
countries  depends  on  this  fact. 

In  our  country  we  experienced  such  a  manifold  shap- 
ing of  events  in  the  Kerensky  period,  among  the  Social 
Revolutionists  and  the  Social  Democrats,  such  a  varie- 
gated color  scheme  in  the  various  towns  of  Russia,  that 
we  may  say  that  we  have  been  tested  more  than  any  other 
people.  If  we  look  toward  Western  Europe  we  shall 
see  that  the  same  thing  is  now  going  on  there  that  hap- 
pened in  our  country.  We  are  beholding  a  repetition 
of  our  own  history. 

This  is  nothing  less  than  revolutionary  chauvinism, 
similar  to  the  doctrine  of  the  French  revolutionists  when 
they  undertook  to  force  their  creed  on  other  peoples 
by  the  aid  of  the  bayonet.  But  it  is  infinitely  more 
crude.  For  while  France  was  one  of  the  most  advanced 
countries  of  Europe,  Soviet  Russia  is  one  of  the  most 
backward. 

The  Communist  Internationale  is  now  functioning  in 
the  United  States  and  declares  as  its  principal  imme- 
diate object  the  destruction  of  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor.  By  methods  of  secrecy,  by  its  hold  upon  cer- 
tain entirely  foreign  elements  who  do  not  understand 
anything  about  American  conditions  or  American  labor 
organizations,  by  the  laid  of  the  large  sums  it  receives 
from  Russia  and  by  the  sympathy  and  assistance  it 
secures  from  our  numerous  "parlor  Bolshevists"  this 
organization  is  able  to  give  considerable  trouble  to  the 
American  Labor  movement. 

The  danger  very  largely  takes  the  form  of  publications 
supporting  the  Soviet  cause  in  the  United  States.  Only 
a  few  of  these  are  openly  Communist.  But  a  large  num- 
ber of  publications  and  writers  take  the  Communist  posi- 


THE  COMMUNIST  INTERNATIONALE    165 

tion  of  hostility  with  regard  to  the  Federation  of  Labor 
combined  with  friendship  to  Bolshevism.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  some  of  them  are  subsidized  by  Moscow. 
A  resolution  passed  by  the  Second  Congress  of  the  Com- 
munist Internationale  declared: 

The  Communist  parties  must  create  a  new  type  of 
periodical  press  for  extensive  circulation  among  the 
workmen;  (1)  Lawful  publications  in  which  the  Com- 
munists without  calling  themselves  such  and  without 
mentioning  their  connection  with  the  party,  would  learn 
to  utilize  the  slightest  possibility  allowed  by  the  laws. 
(2)  Illegal  sheets. 

One  of  the  first  actions  taken  by  the  new  Bolshevist 
Government  after  it  seized  power  was  to  vote  money 
for  such  purposes.  Here  is  one  of  its  first  decrees: 

The  Soviet  of  People's  Commissaries  deems  it  neces- 
sary to  bring  all  possible  means,  including  money  to 
the  aid  of  the  Left  International  Wing  of  the  workers' 
movement  in  all  lands,  quite  regardless  of  whether  these 
countries  are  at  war  or  in  alliance  with  Russia;  or 
whether  they  are  neutral. 

To  that  end  the  Soviet  of  People's  Commissaries, 
orders  to  appropriate  for  the  needs  of  the  revolutionary 
international  movement  2,000,000  rubles,  to  be  taken 
charge  of  by  the  foreign  representative  of  the  Commis- 
sariat of  Foreign  Affairs. 
(Signed) 

President,  Soviet  People's  Commissaries, 

VI.  Ulianoff  (Lenin) 
(Signed) 

People's  Commissary  of  Foreign  Affairs, 

L.  Trotzky. 
(Published  in  Izvestia,  Dec,  13, 1917,  p.  9.) 


166         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

Far  from  denying  this  governmentally  subsidized 
propaganda  the  entire  Bolshevist  press  of  the  world 
openly  boasts  of  it. 

In  the  report  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Com- 
munist Internationale  to  the  Second  World  Congress  of 
the  Communist  Internationale,  Zinoviev  wrote : 

Russian  workmen,  to  whom  the  progressive  workmen 
of  other  countries  have  rendered  brotherly  assistance 
during  the  course  of  two  decades,  have  considered  it 
their  proletarian  duty  now  to  render  similar  brotherly 
assistance  to  the  struggling  proletariat  that  is  in  more 
difficult  material  circumstances. 

With  respect  to  the  assistance  in  money  which  the 
Communist  International  has  rendered  to  brotherly  par- 
ties, the  yellow  Social  Democrats,  with  the  support  of 
the  tatlers  of  the  bourgeoisie  press,  have  raised  a  lot 
of  noise  in  various  countries  of  Europe.  People  who 
do  not  consider  it  disgraceful  to  use  material  support 
given  by  the  brigand-like  League  of  Nations  raise  shouts 
of  protest  because  the  workmen  (!)  of  one  country  sup- 
port their  brothers  in  another  country. 

The  workmen  themselves  did  not  take  this  attitude 
toward  the  matter.  The  Italian  Communists,  for  ex- 
ample, practically  declared  quite  openly  that  i^ome  of 
their  party  organizations  were  able  to  be  founded  only 
because  the  Communist  International  rendered  brotherly 
assistance  to  the  Italian  workmen.  The  workmen  com- 
munists in  other  countries  have  made  similar  declara- 
tions. .  .  . 

The  entire  western  European  bourgeois  press,  which 
is  bought  up  by  capital,  has  not  ceased  to  throw  dirt 
at  communism  because  of  the  subsidy  which  the  daily 
British  Socialist  paper,  "Daily  Herald,"  was  receiving 
from  the  Russian  proletariat. 

This  last  statement  was  publicly  denied  by  the  Lon- 


THE  COMMUNIST  INTERNATIONALE    167 

don  Daily  Herald,  but  many  facts  are  known  to  point  in 
the  contrary  direction.  It  will  be  noted  that  the  Bol- 
shevists treat  the  entire  labor  press  and  even  the  non- 
Bolshevist  Socialist  press  as  "bourgeois." 

The  Bolshevists  regard  their  enormous  expenditures 
in  mendacious  propaganda  as  having  been  brilliantly 
successful  and  there  is  some  ground  for  their  claim. 
Zinoviev  has  recently  summed  up  this  success  at  length 
in  Pravda,  November  7,  1920.  We  note  a  few  sentences : 

The  campaign  of  slander  was  very  well  organized  by 
the  bourgeoisie  and  by  its  lackeys  from  the  II  "Inter- 
nationale"; it  was  organised,  one  may  say,  scientifically 
and  with  talent.  But  nevertheless,  we  can  say  with  the 
greatest  pride,  that  we  came  out  victorious  from  this 
unequal  struggle.  .  .  . 

Up  to  the  present,  the  international  proletariat  as  a 
whole  was  on  the  defensive,  and  now  it  will  be  able 
to  assume  the  offensive.  .  .  . 

When  Soviet  troops  were  at  the  gates  of  Warsaw, 
it  became  particularly  clear  that  the  international  pro- 
letariat is  entering  on  a  stage  which  can  be  called :  pass- 
ing from  the  defensive  to  the  offensive.  .  .  . 

The  Council  of  Action  in  London,  which  showed  such 
brilliant  activity  for  a  couple  of  weeks,  was  undoubtedly 
the  forerunner  of  English  Soviets  of  Workmen's  Depu- 
ties. 

Zinoviev 's  reference  to  the  Second  Internationale  also 
includes  as  non-proletarian  and  bourgeois  the  entire 
non-Bolshevist  Labor  Union  and  Socialist  press  of 
Europe. 

Krassin  has  also  made  recent  reference  to  the  success 
of  the  Soviet  propaganda,  frankly  stating  that  "the 
hostility  of  Great  Britain  had  been  overcome  by  propa- 


168        OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

ganda."  If  we  recall  the  ceaseless  campaign  of  falsifica- 
tion concerning  not  only  Russia  but  the  entire  labor 
movement  of  the  world  that  is  being  carried  on  by  the 
London  Daily  Herald  and  other  Sovietist  or  pro-Soviet 
organs  of  Great  Britain,  circulated  not  only  in  that 
country  but  all  over  the  world,  we  can  realize  the 
enormous  damage  that  has  been  inflicted  upon  the  British 
labor  movement  by  the  gold  which  the  Bolshevists  have 
looted  from  the  poverty-stricken  population  of  Kussia. 


iTHE  NEW  RED  LABOR  UNION  INTER- 
NATIONALE 

OPERATING  solely  in  the  field  of  politics,  propaganda, 
and  insurrection  the  Communist  Internationale  was  not 
a  perfect  instrument  for  the  purposes  of  the  Soviets. 
The  Communist,  or  Third  Internationale,  from  its  found- 
ation in  March,  1919,  had  directed  its  operations  mainly, 
not  against  the  bourgeoisie,  but  against  what  it  calls 
"bourgeois"  labor  as  represented  in  the  Second  or 
Socialist  Internationale.  But  it  soon  discovered  that  the 
most  formidable  labor  enemies  of  Bolshevism  are  not  the 
political  Socialists  of  the  Right  or  of  the  Center  (the 
orthodox  Marxist  followers  of  Kautsky,  Longuet,  etc.) 
but  the  labor  unions  of  the  world,  from  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor  to  the  British  and  German  unions 
and  even  the  syndicalistic  French  Confederation. 

At  the  Congress  of  the  Communist  Internationale  at 
Moscow  in  the  summer  of  1920,  Lenin  issued  the  follow- 
ing declaration  of  war  against  organized  labor,  thinly 
veiled  as  a  war  against  leaders: 

Our  main  enemy  is  title  opportunism  in  the  upper 
ranks  of  tlie  labor  movement.  This  is  not  a  Socialist  or 
proletarian,  but  a  bourgeois  movement.  That  these 
leaders  of  the  labor  movement  are  defending  the  bour- 
geoisie better  than  the  bourgeoisie  itself,  and  that  with- 
out their  assistance  the  bourgeoisie  could  not  maintain 

169 


170         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

itself — is  shown  not  only  by  the  regime  of  Kerensky, 
but  also  by  the  present  democratic  republic  in  Germany, 
and  by  the  attitude  of  Albert  Thomas  and  Henderson 
toward  their  bourgeois  Governments.  Here  is  our  main 
enemy;  we  must  triumph  over  this  enemy,  and  leave  this 
Congress  with  a  unanimous  and  firm  decision  to  carry 
this  struggle  through  to  the  end  in  att  countries.  This. 
is  our  main  task. 

If  that  part  of  the  labor  movement  whicE  utterly  repu- 
diates Bolshevism  is  to  be  called  "the  upper  ranks"  then 
recent  elections  throughout  the  labor  movement  of 
Europe  have  proven  that  fully  three-fourths  of  the  mem- 
bership is  to  be  so  classified. 

Bolshevist  enmity  makes  no  distinction  between  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  and  the  European  unions 
adhering  to  the  Amsterdam  International  Federation  of 
Trade  Unions.  The  fact  that  this  international  body 
was  ready  to  declare  not  only  a  general  strike  but  a 
food  blockade  of  the  Polish  people  and  to  forcibly  inter- 
rupt the  shipment  of  food  and  munitions  to  Poland, 
all  in  order  to  aid  the  Soviets  to  accomplish  their  declared 
purpose  of  conquering  the  Poles,  counted  for  nothing 
in  the  minds  of  the  would-be  world  dictators  at  Moscow. 
In  spite  of  the  servile  attitude  of  nearly  all  the  political 
parties  of  the  Second,  or  Socialist,  Internationale  and 
of  the  controlling  elements  in  the  Amsterdam  Trades 
Union  Internationale,  the  Moscow  dictators  administer 
nothing  but  rebuffs  to  everybody  who  refuses  to  accept 
their  absolute  rule  and  demand  that  all  existing  organ- 
izations be  wholly  reshaped  according  to  Moscow's 
revolutionary  specifications. 

The  Bolshevists  therefore   decided  at  Moscow,   last 


THE  NEW  RED  LABOR  UNION          171 

July,  to  form  a  new  Internationale  of  Red  Labor  Unions. 
This  organization  is  based  upon  the  fictitious  member- 
ship of  five  millions  claimed  by  the  official  Russian 
Soviet  trade  unions,  upon  the  temporary  adhesion  of 
the  Italian  Confederation  of  Labor  with  its  two  million, 
members — although  this  organization  is  at  present  rather 
outside  than  inside  the  Communist  Internationale,  and 
upon  lesser  but  equally  doubtful  claims  in  other  coun- 
tries. The  Communist  Internationale  adopted,  by  an 
overwhelming  majority,  the  following  amendment  pro- 
posed by  Radek  in  connection  with  this  new  Red  Inter- 
nationale : 

It  is  the  one  weapon  of  the  world  revolutionary  move- 
ment against  the  yellow  International,  because  the  prin- 
cipal enemy  of  the  revolutionary  proletariat  is  not  Brus- 
sels but  Amsterdam — that  is  the  yellow  international  of 
trade  union  organizations.  By  overthrowing  Amster- 
dam we  shall  deal  the  most  terrible  blow  to  the  capital- 
istic order,  but  this  blow  can  be  dealt  only  by  the  Red 
International  of  trade-unions. 

This  Red  Internationale  is  somewhat  stronger  than 
at  first  appears.  While  it  has  comparatively  little 
direct  support  from  the  labor  unions,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  Latin  countries,  it  has  a  very  strong 
support  from  the  newly  formed  Communist  par- 
ties created  during  the  last  six  months  by  the  split  of 
the  Socialist  parties — according  to  Moscow  orders — in 
several  European  countries.  Thus  a  majority  of  the 
Socialist  Party  members  of  France,  through  the  newly 
created  Communist  Party,  have  accepted  the  dictator- 
ship of  the  Moscow  Communist  Internationale,  including 


172         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

the  entire  twenty-one  points.  A  powerful  faction  of  the 
Socialists  in  Germany,  now  organized  as  the  Communist 
Party  and  including  a  million  or  two  supporters,  has 
taken  the  same  action.  And,  finally,  in  Italy  both  the 
Communist  Party  and  the  Socialist  Party  adhere  to  the 
Third  Internationale  and  accept  the  twenty-one  points, 
although  the  latter  also  claims  a  certain  measure  of 
autonomy.  The  leadership  of  all  these  movements  is 
largely  in  the  hands  of  ''intellectuals"  and  outsiders, 
non-members  of  the  labor  unions.  This  is  markedly  the 
case  with  the  Italian  Communist  Party.  But  the  influ- 
ence on  labor  is,  nevertheless,  formidable. 
jp  Of  Moscow's  twenty-one  points  accepted  by  all  these 
so-called  labor  parties,  points  nine  and  ten  refer  to 
organized  labor.  They  are  as  follows: 

9.  Every  party  which  desires  to  join  the  Communist 
Internationale  must  systematically  and  constantly  de- 
velop a  communist  activity  within  the  trades  unions, 
the   workmen's   and   factory   councils,    the   consumers' 
societies  and  other  mass  organizations  of  the  workmen. 
"Within  these  organizations  it  is  necessary  to  organize 
Communist  ''cells"  which  by  constant,  perseverant  work 
shall  win  the  trades  unions,  &c.,  over  to  the  cause  of 
Communism.     The  "cells"  are  obliged  in  their  daily 
•work  to  unmask  everywhere  the  treason  of  the  social- 
patriots  and  the  fickleness  of  the  "Centre."    The  Com- 
munist "cells"  must  be  completely  subordinated  to  the 
whole  party. 

10.  Every  party  belonging  to  the  Third  Internationale 
is  obliged  to  wage  a  stubborn  war  against  the  Amster- 
dam "Internationale"  of  the  yellow  trade  unions.    They 
must  most  emphatically  propagate  among  the  unions  of 
organized  workmen  the  necessity  of  a  breach  with  the 
yellow  Amsterdam  Internationale.    They  must  support 


THE  NEW  RED  LABOR  UNION          173 

by  all  means  the  rising  international  unification  of  red 
trade  unions  which  join  the  Communist  Internationale. 

If  it  is  recalled  that  the  orders  of  the  Moscow  Execu- 
tive Committee  are  absolute  over  all  Communist  organ- 
izations and  that  Moscow  is  willing  to  spend  the  last 
gold  ruble  of  the  heritage  of  the  Russian  people  for  the 
disruptive  purposes  it  may  be  seen  that  the  danger 
threatening  the  labor  union  movement  of  Continental 
Europe  is  considerable.  Indeed  the  French  C.  G.  T. 
was  saved  for  the  cause  of  labor  unionism  at  the  last 
meeting  of  the  Council  only  by  a  very  narrow  margin 
of  votes.  The  struggle  was  most  unequal.  There  is  no 
bribery  and  corruption  fund  available  for  the  legitimate 
labor  unions  to  counterbalance  the  colossal  corruption 
fund  of  Moscow.  For  every  dollar  legitimately  raised 
and  expended  by  organized  labor  in  self-defense,  the 
Communists,  from  the  loot  they  have  taken  from  Russian 
workmen  and  peasants,  are  able  to  spend  a  thousand. 

The  situation  in  Great  Britain  is  similar,  though  some- 
what less  acute.  Because  of  the  absence  of  any  powerful 
Communist  political  party,  the  Soviets  are  forced  in  that 
country  to  act  mainly  through  the  subsidy  of  the  labor 
press  and  other  propaganda,  which  Krassin  admits  ob- 
tained for  the  Communists  the  signing  of  the  British 
trade  agreement. 

The  purpose  of  the  new  organization  was  briefly 
declared  by  "The  International  Soviet  of  Trade 
Unions,"  the  name  which  it  first  assumed.  On  August 
1st,  1920,  this  body  issued  a  statement  from  Moscow 
from  which  we  take  the  following: 

The  substance  of  our  activity  and  of  our  program: 


174         OUT  OF  .THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

The  overthrow  of  the  bourgeoisie  by  force,  the  establish- 
ment of  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat,  a  merciless 
class  struggle  on  an  international  scale,  a  close  and  in- 
separable union  with  the  Communist  International. 

From  the  first  moment  of  its  inauguration  the  newest 
Red  Internationale  was  met  with  grave  internal  prob- 
lems. A  split  was  immediately  threatened  between  the 
ultra-State  Socialism  of  the  Eussians  who  hoped  to  ex- 
tend their  absolute  authority  from  the  Russian  State 
to  other  nations,  and  the  ultra-revolutionary  labor  unions 
of  other  countries,  all  of  which  tend  in  the  direction 
of  syndicalism  or  anti-Stateism.  Apparently  the  conflict 
is  insoluble,  but  the  Moscow  chiefs  of  the  new  Inter- 
nationale decided  to  use  their  accepted  Macchiavellian 
tactics  of  deception  and  to  ''take  in"  the  syndicalist 
elements — as  will  be  demonstrated  by  the  evidence  we 
shall  now  reproduce. 

Among  the  reports  unanimously  adopted  at  the  Con- 
gress of  the  Communist  Internationale  in  July,  1920,  was 
the  following: 

As  for  the  revolutionary  Syndicalists,  as  well  as  the 
representatives  of  shop-stewards,  we  shall  not  follow  the 
example  of  the  II  International,  which  always  harassed 
and  persecuted  all  workmen  who  were  not  in  agreement 
with  its  ideas. 

We  shall  work  in  conjunction  with  all  honest  and 
honestly  misguided  workmen,  and  together  with  them 
we  shall  learn  and  make  mistakes,  because  funda- 
mentally, in  our  class  aims  and  ideals  we  represent  with 
them  a  single  proletarian  revolutionary  whole. 

Another  resolution  recommended  the  most  "friendly 
attitude"  and  "closer  connection"  with  these  organiza- 


THE  NEW  RED  LABOR  UNION          175 

tions.  The  language  here  chosen  is  highly  significant, 
as  is  also  the  phraseology  of  the  following  sentence  from 
the  same  resolution: 

As  regards  the  I.  "W.  W.  of  America  and  Australia 
and  the  Shop-Steward  Committees  of  England,  we  have 
to  deal  with  a  genuinely  proletarian  mass  movement 
which  practically  adheres  to  the  principles  of  the  Com- 
munist Internationale. 

In  order,  however,  to  show  the  utter  impossibility  of 
any  real  compromise  on  the  part  of  Moscow  toward  any 
trade  unions  or  any  other  body  having  to  deal  with 
it — no  matter  how  revolutionary  they  may  be — we  may 
quote  the  following  passages  on  the  trade  unions  from 
"the  theses  and  statutes  adopted  by  the  Third  or  Com- 
munist Internationale"  at  their  1920  Congress.  We 
quote  from  the  official  publication  issued  by  the  office 
of  the  Communist  Internationale  in  Moscow: 

All  voluntary  withdrawal  from  the  industrial  move- 
ment, every  artificial  attempt  to  organize  special  unions, 
without  being  compelled  thereto  by  exceptional  acts  of 
violence  on  the  part  of  the  trade  union  bureaucracy, 
such  as  expulsion  of  separate  revolutionary  local 
branches  of  the  unions  by  the  opportunist  officials,  or 
by  their  narrow-minded  aristocratic  policy,  which  pro- 
hibits the  unskilled  workers  from  entering  into  the 
organization,  represents  a  great  danger  to  the  Communist 
movement.  It  threatens  to  hand  over  the  most  advanced, 
the  most  conscious  workers,  to  the  opportunist  leaders, 
playing  into  the  hands  of  the  bourgeoisie. 

Placing  the  object  and  the  essence  of  labour  organiza- 
tions before  them,  the  Communists  ought  not  to  hesitate 
before  a  split  in  such  organizations,  if  a  refusal  to  split 


176         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

would  mean  abandoning  revolutionary  work  in  the  trade 
unions,  and  giving  up  the  attempt  to  make  of  them  an 
instrument  of  revolutionary  struggle,  the  attempt  to 
organize  the  most  exploited  part  of  the  proletariat. 

Where  a  split  between  the  opportunists  and  the  revolu- 
tionary trade  union  movement  has  already  taken  place 
before,  where,  as  in  America,  alongside  of  the  opportunist 
trade  unions  there  are  unions  with  revolutionary  ten- 
dencies— although  not  Communist  ones — there  the  Com- 
munists are  bound  to  support  such  revolutionary  unions, 
to  persuade  them  to  abandon  Syndicalist  prejudices  and 
to  place  themselves  on  the  platform  of  Communism, 
which  alone  is  economic  struggle. 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  Communists  in  all  the  phases 
of  the  economic  struggle  to  point  out  to  the  workers 
that  the  success  of  the  struggle  is  only  possible  if  the 
working  class  conquers  the  capitalists  in  open  fight,  and 
by  means  of  dictatorship  proceeds  to  the  organization 
of  a  Socialist  order.  Consequently,  the  Communists 
must  strive  to  create  as  far  as  possible  complete  unity 
between  the  trade  unions  and  the  Communist  Party,  and 
to  subordinate  the  unions  to  the  practical  leadership  of 
the  Party,  as  the  advanced  guard  of  the  workers'  revolu- 
tion. For  this  purpose  the  Communists  should  have 
Communist  fractions  in  all  the  trade  unions  and  factory 
committees  and  acquire  by  their  means  an  influence  over 
the  labour  movement  and  direct  it. 

In  a  word,  whether  with  or  without  a  split,  the  aim 
is  to  subordinate.  We  shall  now  note  the  practical 
application  of  the  Communist  trade  union  principles, 
according  to  the  method  of  Lenin  already  quoted,  "We 
must  know  how  to  apply,  at  need,  knavery,  deceit,  illegal 
methods,  hiding  truth  by  silence,  in  order  to  penetrate 
the  very  heart  of  the  trade  unions,  to  remain  there  and 
to  accomplish  there  the  Communist  task." 


THE  NEW  RED  LABOR  UNION          177 

As  soon  as  the  Trade  Union  Internationale  was  formed, 
the  leading  Bolshevist  authority  on  trade  unions,  Losov- 
sky,  was  delegated  to  prepare  an  official  pamphlet.  This 
pamphlet  was  printed  in  Russian  and  accepted,  but 
when  it  was  being  translated  into  other  languages  it 
occurred  to  the  Moscow  authorities  that  it  was  indis- 
pensable as  far  as  possible  to  keep  from  the  knowledge 
of  the  revolutionary  labor  unionists  of  other  countries 
the  irreconcilable  differences  between  syndicalism  and 
Bolshevist  state  socialism  which  had  developed  in  the 
Moscow  conference.  Therefore,  when  it  was  too  late, 
the  two  following  wireless  dispatches  were  sent  abroad: 

To  Litvinov  for  Asten,  Chairman,  Russian  Trade  Union 
Delegation. 

Moscow,  Sept.  8. 

The  international  council  of  Labor  Unions  has  now 
been  joined  by  the  British  Shop  Stewards  and  Workers 
Committees,  Transport  Workers '  Federation  of  Holland, 
German  Syndicalists  and  Italian  Syndicalists.  Please 
shape  your  policy  in  accordance  with  this  fact.  The 
aim  of  the  Council  is  to  unite  all  the  Left  elements  of 
the  Trade  Union  and  Industrial  movement.  In  view 
of  this  pp.  56-70  of  Losovsky's  story  of  the  Council 
must  be  re-written  before  publishing. 

General  Secretary  of  the  International  Council 
of  Trades  Unions — Tomsky. 

Wireless  to  Losovsky,  Russian  Trade  Union  Delegation, 
Christiana,  Norway. 

Moscow,  Sept.  9. 

Your  booklet  on  the  International  Council  of  Trade 
Unions  will  be  published  in  Russian  with  a  foreword 
and  additional  matters.  The  polemic  nature  of  the  book- 
let as  far  as  it  deals  with  industrial  syndicalists,  shop 
stewards  and  Italian  Confederation  representatives  such 


178         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

as  to  make  it  inadvisable  that  it  should  be  published  in 
a  foreign  language. 

General  Secretary  of  International  Council 
of  Trades  Unions — Tomsky. 

The  passages  which  it  was  wished  to  keep  from  the 
non-Russian  adherents  of  the  New  Red  Internationale 
were  those  describing  the  results  of  the  Red  Trade  Union 
congress  held  in  Moscow  the  beginning  of  July,  1920. 
Among  the  most  instructive  paragraphs  are  the  follow- 
ing :  [We  quote  from  the  pamphlet  entitled  ' '  The  Inter- 
national Council  of  Trade  and  Industrial  Unions,  by  A. 
Losovsky,  (S.  A.  Dridzo) — Price  25  cents — Published  by 
the  Union  Publishing  Company,  New  York  City.] 

The  German  syndicalists,  tine  British  and  American 
representatives  of  the  I.  W.  W.  and  the  Shop  Stewards 
approached  the  question  from  quite  a  different  point 
of  view.  They  questioned  the  necessity  of  any  form  of 
dictatorship.  They  regarded  the  dictatorship  not  as  the 
dictatorship  of  the  proletariat,  but  as  dictatorship  over 
the  proletariat  and  categorically  protested  against  estab- 
lishing this  principle. 

The  representatives  of  the  All-Russian  Central  Coun- 
cil of  Trade  Unions  proposed  the  following  point  on 
the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat:  "The  dictatorship 
of  the  bourgeoisie  must  be  opposed  by  the  dictatorship 
of  the  proletariat  as  a  transitional,  but  resolute  measure, 
as  the  only  means  by  which  it  is  possible  to  crush  the 
resistance  of  the  exploiters,  and  secure  and  consolidate 
the  gains  of  the  proletarian  government." 

This  formula  was  adopted  by  all  except  the  syndical- 
ists, and  the  representatives  of  the  I.  W.  W.  and  the 
Shop  Stewards. 

It  was  difficult  to  unite  these  conflicting  tendencies — 


THE  NEW  RED  LABOR  UNION          179 

from  the  denial  of  the  necessity  of  a  political  party — 
to  the  recognition  of  the  necessity  of  the  inseverable  con- 
nection between  the  party  and  the  unions,  on  a  single 
platform.  It  was  still  more  difficult  to  reconcile  the 
point  of  view  of  the  Russian  trade  unionists  on  the 
supremacy  of  the  party  over  the  unions  with  the  various 
views  explained  above.  The  discussion  showed  one  thing, 
and  that  was  that  those  elements  of  the  labor  movement 
which  denied  the  political  struggle,  which  denied  the 
necessity  of  a  political  party  of  the  proletariat,  and  the 
closest  bond  between  the  Communist  Party  and  the  trade 
unions  could  not  enter  the  new  international  trade  union 
centre,  because  the  whole  idea  of  international  organiza- 
tion of  the  revolutionary  unions  lay  in  gathering  all 
the  economic  and  political  organizations  of  the  working 
class  into  one  body — the  Third  International — for  defen- 
sive and  offensive  operations  against  the  capitalist  class. 
Pestana  [of  the  National  Confederation  of  Labor  of 
Spain]  said  that  he  could  not  imagine  such  a  relation 
between  the  party  and  the  unions  as  existed  in  Russia, 
in  Spain,  for  the  reason  that  in  Spain  the  unions  are 
a  great  force,  while  the  Communist  Party  is  only  in 
its  embryonic  stage.  He  opposed  the  subordination  of 
the  unions  to  the  party,  but  was  in  favor  of  the  closest 
contact  between  the  party  and  the  unions  on  a  national 
and  international  scale.  Neither  the  representatives  of 
the  British  Shop  Stewards'  or  the  American  I.  W.  W. 
objected  to  co-operating  with  the  Communist  Party,  but 
the  German  syndicalists  and  the  representatives  of  the 
industrial  Labor  Unions  were  categorically  opposed  to 
any  co-operation. 

Thes'e  comrades  also  raised  doubts  concerning  the 
Soviet  system.  They  asserted  that  the  Soviet  system 
is  not  applicable  to  Western  Europe,  and  that  the  indus- 
trial unions  and  the  shop  stewards'  committees  will  per- 
form the  function  of  the  Soviets  there. 


180          OUT   OF   THEIR   OWN   MOUTHS 

The  representatives  of  the  All-Russian  Central  Coun- 
cil of  Trade  Unions  were  of  the  opinion  that  the  trade 
unions  should  organize  sections  within  the  Trade  Inter- 
national. From  this  it  follows  that  the  Third  Com- 
munist International  should  be  the  general  staff  of  all 
the  militant  revolutionary  class  organizations  of  the 
proletariat. 

All  tJie  delegates  except  tke  Bulgarians  opposed  the 
Russian  delegation.  The  Italians,  French  and  English, 
approaching  the  question  from  various  points  of  view 
were  inclined  to  the  opinion  that  an  independent  inter- 
national organization  should  be  set  up  which,  while  being 
connected  by  ideas  and  organization  with  the  Third 
International,  nevertheless  should  lead  an  independent 
existence.  The  representative  of  the  German  syndicalists 
and  of  the  Australian  I.  W.  W.  were  against  all  connec- 
tion with  the  Third  International  and  argued  that  the 
trade  unions  under  no  circumstances  will  associate  with 
a  political  organization.  It  is  characteristic  that  the 
same  point  of  view  was  held  by  the  representatives 
of  the  German  Labor  Unions,  Otto  Ruhle,  who  repre- 
sented the  German  Communist  Labor  Party,  the  dis- 
tinguishing feature  of  which  is  that  it  denies  the  neces- 
sity and  usefulness  of  politically  organizing  the  working 
class.  On  this  question,  as  on  other  questions,  the  syn- 
dicalists and  the  I.  "W.  W.  differed.  On  this  occasion 
it  was  due  to  the  I.  W.  W.  supporting  affiliation  to  the 
Third  International. 


The  question  that  raised  most  discussion  was  that  of 
the  tactics  of  the  Communist  revolutionary  elements 
within  the  trade  union  movement  in  connection  with  the 
old  mass  unions.  The  question  was:  Should  the  old 
unions  be  split  or  captured?  Considerable  differences 
were  revealed  among  the  delegates  on  this  point.  Recog- 
nizing their  weakness  in  comparison  with  the  German 
"free"  unions  which  embrace  nearly  8,000,000  members, 


THE  NEW  RED  LABOR  UNION          181 

the  German  syndicalists  and  representatives  of  the  Ger- 
man Labor  Unions  declared  that  the  present  day  "free" 
unions  of  Germany  were  hopeless,  that  it  was  necessary 
to  destroy  them  and  only  by  destroying  them  it  will  be 
possible  to  conquer  the  bourgeoisie.  The  representatives 
of  the  I.  W.  W.  held  the  same  viewpoint.  In  their 
opinion  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  is  an  in- 
vincible fortress.  The  only  thing  to  do  was  to  abandon 
it  and  set  up  a  separate  organization  outside  of  it.  They 
further  asserted  that  the  reactionary  character  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  is  bound  up  with  its  very 
construction  and  to  think  of  fighting  the  treacherous 
policy  of  Gompers  inside  the  unions  was  an  Utopia.  .  .  . 
Both  the  German  and  the  American  comrades  were 
clearly  illogical,  for  it  is  ridiculous  to  think  that  it  is 
possible  to  bring  about  a  social  revolution  in  Western 
Europe  without  or  in  spite  of  the  trade  unions.  To  leave 
the  unions  and  to  set  up  small  independent  unions  is  an 
evidence  of  weakness. 

It  is  obvious  that  a  conference  of  representatives  of 
trade  unions  of  various  countries  could  not  adopt  a 
point  of  despair,  and  it  was  resolved  to  "condemn  the 
tactics  of  advanced  revolutionary  elements  leaving  the 
existing  unions.  On  the  contrary,  these,  must  take  all 
measures  to  drive  the  opportunists  out  of  the  unions, 
carry  on  a  methodical  propaganda  for  Communism 
within  the  unions,  and  form  Communist  and  revolu- 
tionary groups  in  all  the  organizations  for  conducting 
propaganda  in  favor  of  our  programme." 

That  the  conference  took  up  the  correct  point  of  view 
is  proved  by  the  Second  Congress  of  the  Third  Inter- 
national which  sharply  opposed  the  tactics  of  leaving 
the  unions.  The  motto  put  forward  by  the  Communist 
International,  and  which  is  our  motto  also,  is:  "Not  the 
destruction,  but  the  conquest  of  the  trade  unions." 


182         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

It  may  have  been  possible  on  other  questions  to  com- 
promise in  order  to  secure  agreement,  but  on  this  car- 
dinal question  of  international  labor  policy  no  com- 
promise was  possible. 

These  conferences  ended  in  the  acceptance  of  a  declara- 
tion which  should  serve  as  a  basis  for  gathering  all 
the  revolutionary  class  unions  into  one  organization. 
This  declaration  was  discussed  for  a  whole  month,  and 
is  the  result  of  a  compromise  between  various  tendencies. 

Losovsky  quotes  the  declaration  referred  to  in  full. 
As  he  himself  declares  it  is  vague  and  for  the  most  part 
unimportant.  But  one  resolution  should  be  noted  to- 
gether with  the  signatures: 

To  organize  a  militant  international  committee  for  the 
reorganization  of  the  trade  union  movement.  This  com- 
mittee will  function  as  the  International  Council  of 
Trade  Unions  and  will  act  in  agreement  with  the  Execu- 
tive Committee  of  fhe  Third  International  on  conditions 
that  will  be  laid  down  by  congresses. 
Signed : 

A.  LOSOVSKY, 

All-Russian  Central  Council  Trade  Unions. 

L.  D'ARRAGONA, 

General  Confederation  of  Labor,  Italy. 

A.  PESTANA, 

National  Confederation  of  Labor,  Spain. 

N.  SHABLIN, 

General  Syndicalist  Labor  Unions,  Bulgaria. 

A.   ROSMER, 

Revolutionary  Syndicalist  Minority,  C.  G.  T.,  France, 
N.  MIKADO, 

Communist  Minority  Trade  Unions,  Georgia. 
N.  MILKITCH, 

General  Confederation  of  Labor,  Jugo-Slavia  (Ser- 
bia, etc.). 


THE  NEW  RED   LABOR  UNION  183 

Losovsky  follows  this  resolution  with  the  following 
illuminating  comment: 

What  is  the  reason  of  the  vagueness  and  incomplete- 
ness of  the  declaration?  It  is  the  fact  that  several  of 
the  organizations  represented — the  General  Confedera- 
tion of  Labor  of  Italy,  the  unions  which  Robert  Williams 
and  Albert  Purcell  represent — still  belong  to  the  Am- 
sterdam Federation  of  Trade  Unions,  and  that  the 
leaders  of  even  the  revolutionary  class  unions  of  Western 
Europe  lag  behind  the  revolutionary  masses. 

It  is  indeed  interesting  that  Purcell  and  Williams 
should  be  permitted  by  the  organized  labor  of  Great 
Britain  to  participate  in  an  organization  pledged  to  a 
war  of  extermination  against  the  Amsterdam  Interna- 
tional. The  same  remark  applies  to  d'Arragona  who 
was  later  admitted  to  the  Autumn  Conference  of  the 
Amsterdam  Federation  of  Trade  Unions. 

Losovsky  proceeds  to  claim  that  the  new  organization 
is  supported  by  nine  million  members.  We  have  already 
shown  the  absurdity  of  this  claim  with  regard  to  seven 
million  of  these,  representing  Russia  and  Italy.  It  may 
be  doubted  if  the  Spanish  Confederation  wholly  accepts 
Moscow's  dictatorship.  The  claim  to  "the  revolutionary 
syndicalist  minority  of  France,"  seven  hundred  thou- 
sand members,  is  absurd.  The  French  labor  movement 
has  not  yet  been  successfully  disrupted  by  Moscow  and 
the  minority  still  accepts  the  discipline  of  the  C.  G.  T., 
under  Jouhaux,  Dumoulin,  Merrheim,  Bartuel,  Bidegary 
and  other  militant  anti-Bolshevists. 

Since  its  formation  and  the  publication  of  these  official 
pamphlets,  the  Red  Labor  Union  Internationale  has 


184          OUT   OF   THEIR   OWN   MOUTHS 

proceeded  with  its  work  of  attempted  destruction  of 
organized  labor  in  all  countries.  In.  a  recent  publication 
entitled — "Two  Months'  Activity  of  the  International 
Council  of  Trade  and  Industrial  Unions,"  (the  official 
title  now  assumed  by  the  new  Internationale)  we  read: 

' '  The  organization  of  the  propaganda  of  the  Council ' ' — 
thus  states  the  pamphlet — "has  been  started  and  mani- 
festos have  already  been  issued  to  the  organized  workers 
of  Great  Britain,  America,  Germany,  India  and  France. 
.  .  .  The  Council  is  making  arrangements  for  the  estab- 
lishment in  each  of  the  countries  of  at  least  one  central 
propaganda  committee  with  its  members  drawn  from 
the  revolutionary  unions,  where  possible,  the  Communist 
Party.  They  will  not  hesitate  to  form  more  than  one 
National  committee  where  these  are  necessary.  These 
committees  are  to  undertake  extensive  propaganda 
throughout  the  unions  by  means  of  the  publication  of 
manifestos,  the  use  of  labor  papers,  by  conferences  of 
the  unions,  by  controversy  in  the  press,  by  the  organiza- 
tion of  speakers,  distribution  of  our  literature  and  gen- 
eral agitation  throughout  the  labor  movement." 

In  Great  Britain  the  British  Bureau  of  the  Inter- 
national Council  of  Trades  and  Industrial  Unions  has 
been  formed  under  the  leadership  of  notorious  pro-Bol- 
shevist British  unionists,  whose  names  are  known  if  not 
yet  officially  published.  Two  resolutions  are  being  pro- 
posed by  this  "Council"  in  trade  union  locals  in  Great 
Britain  and  America  and  other  countries,  as  follows: 

1.  To  withdraw  from  the  Amsterdam  Federation  of 

Trade  Unions. 

2.  To  join  the  new  Internationale  and  send  delegates 

to  a  world  conference  at  Moscow  pledged  to  sup- 


THE  NEW  RED   LABOR  UNION  185 

port  ...  a  revolutionary  policy  aiming  at  the 
world-wide  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat. 

The  published  program  of  the  Communist  Party  in 
America  indicates  that  they  have  studied  carefully  the 
Moscow  policy  of  boring  from  within  and  battering  from 
without.  Here  is  its  definition  of  the  duty  of  Com- 
munist members  of  trade  unions: 

A  Communist  who  belongs  to  the  A.  F.  of  L.  should 
seize  every  opportunity  to  voice  his  hostility  to  this 
organization,  not  to  reform  it  but  to  destroy  it.  The 
I.  W.  W.  must  be  upheld  as  against  the  A.  F.  of  L.  At 
the  same  time  the  work  of  Communist  education  must  be 
carried  on  within  the  I.  W.  W. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  same  effort  to  capture  is  to 
be  applied  against  the  I.  W.  "W.  as  against  the  non- 
Communist  unions  of  Europe. 

Naturally  the  elements  of  the  European  labor  move- 
ment adhering  to  the  Amsterdam  Federation  of  Trades 
Unions  do  not  accept  the  criticisms  of  the  new  Inter- 
nationale— although  as  yet  the  Amsterdam  body  has 
made  very  feeble  efforts  to  defend  itself  and  its  most 
important  international  action  during  1920  was  the 
violently  pro-Soviet  resolution  for  a  general  strike  above 
referred  to.  At  the  Congress  in  London  in  November, 
the  Federation  passed  the  following  resolution  in  reply 
to  the  Moscow  Trade  Union  manifesto: 

The  Congress  observes  that  the  signatories  of  this 
manifesto  set  down  their  declaration  of  war  by  writing 
that  the  International  of  Moscow  will  destroy  the  ''Yel- 
low" Amsterdam  International. 


186         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

The  Congress  considers,  judging  from  the  facts  of  the 
situation,  that  these  attacks  do  not  emanate  from  the 
Bussian  proletariat  and  that  the  latter  could  not  be 
regarded  as  in  any  degree  responsible  for  them.  Further, 
the  Congress  considers  that  these  caluminous  criticisms 
and  this  declaration  of  war  prove  either  a  total  ignorance 
of  the  composition  and  actions  of  the  International  Fed- 
eration of  Trade  Unions  or  else  an  evident  bad  faith 
arising  out  of  the  unwholesome  desire  to  destroy  the 
workers'  organizations  in  every  country.  (From  Justice, 
December  2,  1920.) 

Throughout  Europe  the  labor  elements  supporting  the 
International  Trades  Union  Federation  and  those  sup- 
porting the  Second  or  Socialist  Internationale  are  largely 
identical.  Perhaps  because  it  had  been  longer  under 
attack,  the  Second  Internationale  at  its  meeting  in  Brus- 
sels, a  few  weeks  before  the  International  Trade  Union 
Congress  of  London,  passed  a  far  more  resolute  anti- 
Bolshevist  resolution  signed : 

ARTHUR  HENDERSON,  M.P.   (Great  Britain). 

EMILE  VANDERVELDE  (Belgium). 

J.  RAMSAY  MACDONALD  (Great  Britain). 

P.  J.  TROELSTRA  (Holland). 

OTTO  WELS  (Germany). 

ARTHUR  ENQBERG  (Sweden). 

CAMILLE  HUYSMANS  (Belgium),  Secretary. 

From  this  resolution  we  may  quote  the  following: 

They  [the  Bolshevists]  trod  the  desires  of  the  Rus- 
sian people  in  the  dust,  and  in  place  of  democracy  they 
established  an  armed  dictatorship,  not  of  the  proletariat, 
but  of  a  committee.  Now  they  are  attempting  to  impose 
their  will  and  their  decrees  upon  the  Socialist  and  Labour 


THE  NEW  RED  LABOR  UNION          187 

Parties  of  the  whole  world.  They  belong  to  the  old 
world  of  Tsardom,  not  to  the  new  world  of  Socialism. 

They  have  insulted  twenty -seven  millions  of  organized 
trade  union  workers  by  calling  them  "scabs"  and  have 
declared  their  intention  to  disrupt  the  trade  unions.  .  .  . 

They  may  have  ended  wage-slavery;  they  have  estab- 
lished State-slavery  and  misery.  They  have  robbed  the 
workers  of  freedom  of  movement  and  of  combination 
and  are  preventing  the  creation  of  economic  democracy. 

This  resolution  undoubtedly  indicates  the  real  state 
of  mind  of  the  trades  unions  of  Europe  towards  the 
Russian  Soviets.  However,  neither  of  these  resolutions 
has  led  to  any  effective  action  of  any  kind  against  either 
the  international  machinations  or  the  subsidized  propa- 
ganda of  Bolshevism.  [For  a  later  declaration  of  the 
Amsterdam  Federation  see  the  following  chapter.] 


XII 
EUROPEAN   LABOR   DISILLUSIONED 

LENIN,  in  the  summer  of  1920,  abandoned  his  policy 
of  excluding  all  persons  from  Russia  who  were  not  Bol- 
shevists. Socialist  and  Labor  delegations  were  admitted 
from  England,  Italy,  France,  Germany,  Spain,  and 
Sweden  which  contained  non-Bolshevist  members.  Few 
if  any  of  their  members  belonged  to  the  moderate  wing 
of  the  European  labor  movement.  The  majority  were 
pro-Bolshevists  and  the  others  represented  the  revolu- 
tionary or  orthodox  "center"  of  the  movement.  On 
returning  to  their  various  countries  the  majority  of  these 
witnesses  condemned  Bolshevism,  root  and  branch. 

Serrati,  Dugoni,  Vacirca  and  d'Arragona,  of  the  Ital- 
ian Socialist  and  labor  union  delegation,  after  their 
visit,  declared  that  while  the  capitalist  regime  had  been 
destroyed  "it  has  not  been  replaced  by  anything  that 
meets  even  the  most  elementary  needs  of  a  civilized  peo- 
ple." Crispien,  the  revolutionary  leader  of  Germany's 
Independent  Socialists,  said  that  under  the  Third  Inter- 
nationale ' '  a  tyranny  almost  as  bad  as  that  of  capitalism 
would  prevail."  Mrs.  Snowden  of  the  British  Mission 
declared  not  only  that  the  Soviets  were  anti-socialist  and 
anti-democratic  and  anti-Christian,  but  that  everybody 
she  had  met  in  Russia  outside  the  Communist  party 
"goes  in  terror  of  his  liberty  or  his  life."  Serrati, 
editor  of  Avanti  and  revolutionary  leader  of  the  Italian 

188 


EUROPEAN  LABOR  DISILLUSIONED      189 

Socialists,  stated  that  the  Russian  people  are  passive 
and  indifferent  and  quoted  Lenin  to  the  effect  that  fifty 
years  would  be  necessary  to  complete  the  work  of  the 
revolution.  The  eminent  German  Socialist,  Dittmann, 
one  of  the  radical  members  of  the  German  delegation, 
reported  that  Russia  was  entirely  under  the  control  of 
the  Bolshevist  Party  with  604,000  members,  and  that 
in  one  month  last  summer  893  people  were  shot  by  order 
of  the  special  revolutionary  tribunals  and  a  much  larger 
number  unreported  were  executed  "by  administrative 
orders."  This  has  happened  since  the  Bolshevists  were 
accredited  all  over  the  world  in  "intellectual"  and 
"liberal"  organs  with  having  abolished  terrorism.  Tom 
Shaw,  a  member  of  the  British  delegation,  pointed  out 
that  the  working  people  of  Russia  were  in  a  condition 
of  actual  slavery. 

Both  Professor  Ballod  of  the  German  delegation  and 
the  Italians,  in  their  official  report,  concluded  that  the 
Bolshevists  are  absolutely  incompetent  economically. 
Professor  Ballod  states  that  the  Soviet  leaders  have 
proven  themselves  "wholly  incapable  of  effecting  an 
economic  restoration  in  Russia"  and  that  "bureaucracy 
is  as  bad  as  it  was  under  the  Czar  and  is  on  the  as- 
cendent. ' ' 

The  Italians,  including  the  revolutionary  Serrati,  de- 
clared that  the  Soviet  as  an  experiment  had  proved  itself 
a  failure,  though  the  British  report  held  that,  as  an 
experiment,  it  would  prove  valuable  to  other  countries 
(carried  out  it  will  be  noted,  at  the  expense  of  the 
Russian  and  not  of  the  British  people).  The  Italians 
and  Germans  regarded  the  existing  resistance  to  the 
Soviet  oppressors  as  justifiable  and  inevitable.  The 


190         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

British  report  referred  to  this  resistance  under  the 
Soviet  term  "counter-revolution"  and  concluded  that 
the  Soviet  Government  was  supported  by  the  Russian 
people.  The  Italians,  as  we  have  said,  held  that  the  pop- 
ulation was  passive  and  indifferent,  while  the  above- 
named  Germans,  admirers  of  the  Soviet  and  the  Third 
Internationale,  discovered  after  investigation  in  Russia, 
that  the  Soviet  regime  was  a  tyranny  without  support 
outside  of  the  Bolshevist  Party. 

The  second  disillusionment  of  European  labor  came 
with  the  ultimatum  of  the  Third  Internationale  (the 
famous  21  points)  by  which  Lenin  declared  to  his  wor- 
shippers that  they  either  had  to  accept  the  absolute 
dictatorship  of  Moscow  or  be  excommunicated,  and  that 
they  had  to  destroy  the  International  Federation  of 
Trades  Unions  as  being  a  scab  organization. 

Finally,  most  frightful  disillusionment,  the  Polish 
people  were  not  conquered  by  the  Soviets,  in  spite  of  all 
the  revolutionary  measures  taken  by  radical  labor 
throughout  Europe  to  help  the  Bolshevist  would-be  con- 
querors. 

All  these  events  took  a  little  time  to  have  their  full 
effect;  it  was  not  until  the  labor  union  and  Socialist 
Party  congresses  of  the  fall  and  winter  that  European 
labor  began  to  find  itself — but  it  has  answered  Lenin 
at  last !  After  a  visit  to  the  Caucasus  J.  R.  MacDonald 
demanded  that  Great  Britain  protect  the  Social-Demo- 
cratic Labor  Government  of  Georgia  and  bring  about 
an  alliance  of  that  country  with  Armenia  and  the  Tartar 
Republic.  As  Soviet  Russia,  Lenin's  official  organ  in 
America,  rightly  remarks,  this  alliance  would  be  for 
defense  against  the  Soviets  as  well  as  against  the  Turks. 


EUROPEAN  LABOR  DISILLUSIONED      191 

Also  Kautsky  of  Germany  and  De  Brouckere  of  Bel- 
gium, after  visiting  Armenia,  recommended  military  in- 
tervention and  Huysmans,  Secretary  of  the  Second 
Internationale  sent  the  appeal  to  that  effect  to  the  Social- 
ist parties  affiliated  with  that  Internationale  (including 
the  British  Labor  Party).  As  between  Turkish  and 
Bolshevist  armies  and  those  of  Great  Britain  and  France, 
not  only  Georgia  and  Armenia,  but  also  MacDonald, 
Kautsky  and  Huysmans  were  for  the  armies  of  the  capi- 
talist governments — a  far  cry  from  the  summer's  policy 
of  assisting  in  the  forcible  Sovietizing  of  Poland ! 

The  French  labor  unionists,  especially,  are  lucid,  con- 
sistent and  outspoken.  The  Executive  of  the  C.  G.  T., 
the  French  Federation  of  Labor,  issued  an  appeal  to 
French  workmen  to  remain  faithful  to  the  union  labor 
movement  as  against  the  Communist  element  that  re- 
cently split  the  Socialist  Party  at  Tours,  and  on  Febru- 
ary 15th  (1921)  this  Executive  was  re-elected,  though  by 
a  narrow  margin — Moscow  having  spent  millions  of  dol- 
lars in  an  attempt  to  purchase  the  Congress.  In  a  long 
manifesto  the  Federation  Executive  charged  the  Com- 
munists with  the  intention  of  "destroying  international 
syndicalism  that  comprises  27,000,000  workers,"  and 
asked  labor  to  support  a  program  of  social  improvement, 
rather  than  "personal  ambitions  and  greeds." 

The  Federation  Council  squarely  accepted  Lenin's 
declaration  of  a  war  to  the  finish  and  authorized  Jouhaux 
by  a  vote  of  103  to  3,  with  twenty-two  abstentions,  to 
take  any  necessary  measures  (including  expulsion) 
against  any  members  who  obeyed  the  orders  of  the 
Third  Internationale  and  organized  nuclei  of  Commun- 
ists for  the  purpose  of  throwing  out  all  non-Bolshevist 


192          OUT   OF   THEIR   OWN   MOUTHS 

leaders.  This  was  a  logical  step  in  pursuance  of  the 
Orleans  Congress  of  the  C.  G.  T.  Congress  in  September, 
1920,  which  issued  a  declaration  of  independence  as 
against  all  outside  political  control.  Merrheim,  Secre- 
tary of  France's  leading  union,  the  Metal  Workers,  at 
this  congress  denounced  the  Soviet  Government  and 
described  Lenin  as  "a  sanguinary  megalomaniac  and  a 
pitiless  tyrant,  the  greatest  menace  to  the  Russian  revolu- 
tion. ' '  When  the  Bolshevists  yelled  in  protest  Merrheim 
replied  that  these  were  the  very  words  used  only  a  few 
years  before  by  the  Franco-Russian,  Rappoport,  now 
one  of  the  French  Bolshevist  leaders.  Bartuel,  Secretary 
of  the  next  largest  union,  the  Miners,  who  has  also  been 
sustained  in  a  recent  congress  of  his  union,  describes 
Bolshevism  as  a  militaristic  and  reactionary  movement 
worse  than  capitalism. 

At  the  French  Socialist  Congress  at  Tours  in  Decem- 
ber, 1920,  at  which  the  revolutionary  majority  accepted 
Lenin  as  Czar  and  changed  the  name  of  the  organization 
to  Communist  Party,  the  minority  (itself  Marxian  and 
revolutionary)  showed  that  the  French  General  Strike 
of  May  1st,  1920,  engineered  and  subsidized  by  the  Rus- 
sian Bolshevists,  had  almost  destroyed  the  organized 
labor  of  France. 

M.  Faure  presented  to  the  delegates  figures  showing 
material  decreases  of  the  membership  in  the  union  syn- 
dicates of  the  Seine  and  of  the  French  Confederation 
of  Labor.  The  Confederation  membership  has  decreased 
from  1,500,000  to  600,000,  he  declared,  while  that  of 
the  Seine  syndicates  has  decreased  from  292,000  to 
140,000.  He  asserted  this  decrease  was  due  to  the  ex- 
tremist element,  and  that  the  party  would  suffer  further 
losses  if  the  revolutionary  spirit  of  Moscow  prevailed. 


EUROPEAN  LABOR  DISILLUSIONED      193 

The  most  recent  delegation  to  Moscow  was  that  of  the 
Spanish  Socialists.  Upon  his  return  to  Spain,  Rois,  one 
of  the  two  delegates,  a  member  of  the  last  Spanish  Parlia- 
ment, reported  as  follows: 

Any  one  who  analyzes  the  curious  state  of  mind  in 
which  the  Russian  leaders  find  themselves  cannot  fail 
to  note  that  it  is  due  to  the  contempt  in  which  the 
notions  of  liberty  and  democracy  are  held.  We  pointed 
out  to  Comrade  Kobetsky  that  the  Spanish  party  was 
accustomed  to  refer  policies  to  a  referendum.  "That," 
he  said,  "is  playing  democracy." 

"How  and  when,"  we  asked  Lenin  in  our  interview 
with  him,  ' '  can  we  get  out  of  this  period  of  the  dictator- 
ship of  the  proletariat — which  you  call  a  period  of  tran- 
sition— and  arrive  at  a  regime  of  freedom  for  labor 
unions,  press,  and  individuals?" 

"We  ourselves,"  Lenin  replied,  "have  never  talked 
of  liberty.  All  we  have  said  is  'dictatorship  of  the 
proletariat.'  That  dictatorship  we  are  exercising  here 
from  the  seat  of  power  in  behalf  of  the  proletariat.  In 
Russia  the  working  class,  properly  so-called,  is  in  a 
minority.  That  minority  is  imposing  its  will  and  will 
continue  to  do  so  as  long  as  other  elements  in  society 
resist  the  economic  conditions  that  Communism  lays 
down.  The  peasants  and  the  country  people  do  not 
think  readily  in  our  terms.  They  have  the  mentality  of 
shopkeepers,  petty  bourgeois.  That  is  why  Denikin,  Kol- 
chak,  and  Wrangel  have  found  some  support  among 
them.  .  .  . 

"However,  to  come  back  to  your  question:  The  period 
of  transition  will  be  a  long  one  with  us — I  should  say 
from  forty  to  fifty  years.  Other  countries,  such  as  Eng- 
land and  Germany,  where  industry  is  better  organized 
than  here,  will  recover  from  the  proletarian  dictatorship 
much  sooner,  though  the  development  of  revolution  in 
those  countries  is  taking  longer  than  we  had  hoped." 


194         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

Perhaps  the  most  complete  and  authoritative  statement 
of  the  attitude  of  European  labor  towards  the  Soviets 
and  their  Communist  Internationale  is  to  be  found  in 
the  open  letter  of  the  International  Federation  of  Trades 
Unions  dated  March  23,  1921.  This  letter  is  signed  by 
the  Executive  Committee  of  the  International  Federa- 
tion of  Trades  Unions  as  follows:  Jouhaux  (France), 
Martens  (Belgium),  Fimmen  and  Oudegeest  (Holland). 
Only  the  name  of  the  President  of  the  organization,  J. 
H.  Thomas,  of  Great  Britain,  is  lacking. 

This  letter  was  in  reply  to  a  very  insulting  epistle 
sent  by  Zinoviev,  as  President  of  the  Communist  Inter- 
nationale, in  which  all  the  leaders  of  the  International 
Federation  of  Trades  Unions  were  declared  to  be  "scabs" 
and  traitors  to  the  working  class. 

The  Executive  Committee  of  the  International  Feder- 
ation of  Trades  Unions  declares  in  its  reply  that  it  is 
ready  to  support  the  Russian  people  and  the  Russian 
revolution  to  the  full  extent  of  its  powers,  but  it  demands 
in  return  from  the  representatives  of  the  Russian  people 
that ' '  they  shall  pursue  a  similar  line  of  conduct  towards 
the  Internationale  of  Labor  Unions."  We  see  from  this 
statement  that  the  International  Trades  Union  Bureau 
recognizes  the  Bolshevist  Government  as  representing 
the  Russian  people — in  spite  of  the  absolutely  contra- 
dictory evidence  it  furnishes  later  in  the  same  letter. 
Of  the  Soviet  regime  it  demands  only  a  friendly  attitude 
to  the  Trades  Union  Internationale ;  in  exchange  for  this, 
it  is  ready  to  give  Bolshevism  an  absolutely  free  hand 
in  Russia  to  continue  the  despotic  rule  over  labor  de- 
scribed in  the  remainder  of  the  letter!  However,  since 
this  introductory  statement  shows  that  the  International 


EUROPEAN  LABOR  DISILLUSIONED      195 

Federation  of  Trades  Unions  wishes  to  be  as  friendly 
to  the  Russian  Bolshevists  as  the  latter  will  allow,  the 
indictment  that  follows  has  all  the  more  weight.  The 
International  Bureau  Executive  continues: 

Up  to  the  present  we  have  received  nothing  from  those 
who  claim  the  right  to  speak  in  the  name  of  the  Russian 
people  but  curses,  libels  and  lies,  which  have  been  spread 
without  the  shadow  of  proof. 

And  is  it  possible  for  us  to  fail  to  state  that  we  find 
it  difficult  to  believe  in  your  good  will  towards  the  pro- 
letariat ?  Is  it  not  a  principle  of  your  party  to  subordi- 
nate the  freedom  of  labor  unions  to  political  considera- 
tions 1  You  suggest  that  we  should  hold  conferences  to- 
gether, but  up  to  the  present  you  have  not  shown  that 
you  have  learned  how  to  consort  with  decent  people. 
The  proof  of  this  is  found  in  your  lies  and  in  the  fact 
that  you  cannot  write  a  letter  without  filling  it  with 
insults — and  you  haven't  even  enough  cleverness  to 
introduce  variety  in  your  attacks.  Your  dictionary  of 
curse  words,  gentlemen,  is  as  monotonous  as  the  starva- 
tion and  the  news  of  massacres  in  your  country. 

For  three  years  you  have  been  destroying  the  freedom 
of  the  labor  movement  in  Russia  with  fire  and  sword. 
And  you  have  done  this  so  thoroughly  and  radically  that 
the  "White  Terror"  of  the  bourgeois  Government  of 
Hungary  is  but  a  weak  reflection  of  your  "Red  Terror." 

The  Executive  of  the  Trade  Union  Internationale  then 
turns  its  attention  to  the  ignorance  displayed  by  the  Bol- 
shevists in  all  their  discussions  of  the  labor  situation  of 
other  countries  and  especially  of  the  labor  unions.  It 
points  out  that  the  International  Trades  Union  Federa- 
tion has  twenty-four  million  members  and  estimates  on 
the  basis  of  Zinoviev's  own  statement  that  the  new  Red 
Labor  Union  Internationale  has  less  than  a  million  mem- 


196         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

bers  outside  of  Russia.     The  International  Executive 
then  continues: 

That  Zinovieff,  who  speaks  in  the  name  of  a  so-called 
Labor  Union  Internationale,  is  ignorant  of  all  this  only 
shows  that  he  has  no  conception  whatever  of  the  Euro- 
pean labor  union  movement.  This  does  not  surprise  us. 
We  are  only  too  well  aware  that  this  gentleman  knows 
the  labor  union  movement  only  from  books  and  pam- 
phlets and  was  never  a  working  man.  Was  it  not  Lenin 
who,  shortly  before  the  October  (1917)  coup  d'  etat, 
wrote  as  follows  of  this  Mr.  Zinovieff:  "I  knew  he  was 
an  ignoramus ;  but  I  didn't  know  he  was  also  a  coward." 

And  this  man  accuses  us  of  not  being  working  men! 
The  confusion  which  runs  among  the  ideas  of  Mr.  Zino- 
vieff is  very  comprehensible  to  us.  He  is  simply  unable 
to  conceive  of  a  labor  union  movement  which  is  fully 
independent  of  the  political  movement.  Did  he  not  write 
in  the  ''Communist  Internationale"  on  April  9th  "You 
(the  Communist  Party)  bind  the  political  struggle  and 
the  economic  struggle  together  as  a  single  whole  and 
supervise  the  political  struggle  of  the  proletariat  just 
as  you  conduct  its  economic  struggle. ' ' 

We  declare  frankly  that  the  situation  in  which  the 
labor  organizations  of  your  country  find  themselves, 
owing  to  your  conduct,  doesn't  entitle  you  to  give  ns 
lectures. 

Lectures  from  you !  You  do  not  appear  to  know,  Mr. 
Zinovieff,  that  your  standpoint  has  long  ago  become 
obsolete  and  belongs  to  the  past.  For  more  than  thirty 
years  the  labor  unions  of  Central  and  Western  Europe 
have  freed  themselves  from  the  guardianship  of  all  poli- 
ticians and  political  parties  and  experience  has  taught 
them  they  have  acted  wisely.  All  your  arrogance  doesn  't 
do  away  with  the  fact  that  you  are  setting  about  to  begin 
the  development  of  the  labor  union  movement  all  over 
again.  Try,  gentlemen,  to  be  a  little  less  behind  the 
times  and  endeavor  to  gain  some  knowledge  of  the  facts. 


EUROPEAN  LABOR  DISILLUSIONED      197 

It  is  of  little  consequence  whether  these  facts  are 
known  to  you  or  not,  or  whether,  according  to  the  teach- 
ings of  Lenin,  you  regard  all  poisons  and  tricks  and 
cloakings  of  the  truth  as  permissible  in  order  to  gain 
control  of  the  labor  unions.  (This  refers  to  the  Macchia- 
vellian  expression  of  Lenin  cited  in  previous  chapters.) 

In  our  letter  of  the  15th  of  December  we  wrote:  "If 
you  or  other  representatives  of  your  labor  union  move- 
ment chance  to  desire  to  gain  more  information  about 
our  movement — during  which  you  would  perhaps  con- 
vince yourselves  that  you  have  hitherto  done  nothing  but 
to  damage  your  own  movement  and  to  harm  the  prole- 
tariat— then  we  are  ready  at  any  time  to  give  you  the 
desired  information. 

If  we  haven't  had  the  opportunity  of  enjoying  the 
blessings  of  your  regime  personally,  at  least  we  know 
your  system  and  your  principles.  We  know  your 
theories,  as  they  are  printed  on  paper,  but  we  also  know 
them  as  applied  in  practice,  which  is  well  illustrated  by 
your  over-crowded  prisons.  We  know  the  dependence 
of  the  Soviets  upon  the  Communist  Party — which  has 
created  a  new  autocracy.  We  know  the  happy  condition 
the  Russian  people  finds  itself  in  and  the  welfare  your 
rule  has  brought — on  paper.  And  we  hear  with  satis- 
faction that  you  regard  Middle  and  Western  Europe  as 
not  yet  being  ripe  for  your  beneficent  plans. 

Look  once  more  at  our  letter  of  December  15th  which 
in  your  haste  to  answer  quickly  you  read  too  super- 
ficially. For  there  we  declared  that  we  are  very  ready 
to  teach  you,  however  painful  it  is  to  us  that  men 
equipped  with  such  complete  power  as  you  have  can 
scarcely  open  their  mouths  or  take  a  pen  in  hand  with- 
out giving  new  proof  that  they  are  without  the  slightest 
knowledge  of  those  things  which  men  in  their  position 
ought  to  know. 

We  declare  to  you  that  we  are  still  ready  to  undertake 
this  work  of  instruction. 


198         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

The  Soviet  Government  itself  has  been  forced  to  take 
notice  of  the  rising  tide  of  hostility  in  the  ranks  of 
European  labor.  The  British  Labor  Party  protested 
against  the  severe  punishment  meted  out  to  Russian 
trade  unionists  who  had  been  bold  enough  to  give  them 
truthful  information  during  their  visit  to  Russia.  This 
protest  had  no  effect  upon  the  barbarian  ears  of  the 
Soviets.  They  refused  to  moderate  their  policy  in  the 
slightest  degree  in  response  to  such  ineffective  verbal 
pressure  but  at  the  same  time  felt  obliged  to  issue  one 
of  their  usual  statements  attempting  to  cover  their 
actions  by  a  few  utterly  meaningless  phrases.  The  state- 
ment, signed  by  Krassin,  was  in  part  as  follows : 

The  Soviet  Government  is  responsible  to  the  working 
masses  of  Russia  and  to  the  world  proletariat  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  success  of  the  Russian  Socialist 
Revolution. 

The  Soviet  Government  is  extremely  desirous  to  main- 
tain the  best  relations  with  the  British  Labor  Party, 
and  with  other  proletarian  or  semi-proletarian  organiza- 
tions. The  Soviet  Government  is  extremely  grateful  to 
them  for  the  support  they  have  given  to  the  cause  of 
the  Russian  Revolution.  [The  British  Labor  Party  has 
not  even  threatened  to  withdraw  or  curtail  this  sup- 
port!— ed.] 

The  Soviet  Government  .  .  .  considers,  as  is  the  case 
at  present,  that  the  sole  organ  having  any  right  to 
impose  conditions  upon  the  Soviets  and  to  make  any 
complaints  to  them  is  the  Russian  working  masses  and 
the  revolutionary  organizations  of  the  proletarian  world. 

That  is,  the  Russian  Communists,  claiming  to  repre- 
sent the  revolutionary  proletariat  of  the  world,  assert 
their  right  of  life  and  death  over  anybody  who  happens 
to  fall  into  their  power,  no  matter  how  large  the  pro- 


EUROPEAN  LABOR  DISILLUSIONED      199 

letarian  majority  which  condemns  their  action !  It  may 
be  doubted  if  a  more  thinly  veiled  defense  of  sheer  des- 
potism was  ever  offered  to  the  world. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Russian  people  are  allowed 
no  voice  whatever  within  that  country,  it  must  not  be 
supposed  that  they  have  been  successfully  stifled.  In- 
numerable representative  individuals  from  all  classes, 
including  the  trade  unions,  men  and  women  whose 
integrity  and  credentials  cannot  be  questioned,  have 
escaped,  to  give  voice  to  the  opinions  of  the  Rus- 
sian people.  Moreover,  the  largest  labor  organiza- 
tions of  Russia,  that  is  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
trade  unions,  without  reference  to  the  new  leaders  ap- 
pointed by  the  Soviets  or  the  new  imaginary  organiza- 
tions created  by  them,  have  been  in  continued  contact 
with  European  labor.  The  same  is  true  of  the  Socialist 
Revolutionary  Party,  numerically  the  most  important 
political  organization  in  Russia.  There  is,  moreover, 
no  misunderstanding  whatever  of  the  Russian  situation 
in  neighboring  countries,  such  as  Germany  and  Scan- 
dinavia, where  the  contact  with  Russia  has  been  close 
and  continuous  and  pro-Bolshevist  "intellectuals"  can 
deceive  nobody.  But  besides  this  testimony  the  labor 
delegations  visiting  Soviet  Russia  have  secured  reports 
from  the  trades  unions  and  from  the  socialist  parties 
as  organizations.  Some  of  these  are  published  in  the 
report  of  the  British  Labor  Delegation.  From  the  most 
important,  the  address  to  British  labor  by  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Socialist  Revolutionary  Party,  signed 
by  Chernoff,  Gotz,  and  other  leaders  known  to  the  entire 
labor  and  socialist  movement  of  Europe,  we  quote  the 
following  characterization  of  the  Bolshevist  regime: 


200         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

"We  quite  understand  that  the  British  proletariat, 
deafened  by  the  clamour  of  the  recent  world  slaughter, 
not  yet  recovered  from  the  wave  of  national  chauvinism, 
would  like  to  see  in  Russia,  in  spite  of  the  libels  of  petty 
bourgeois  penny-a-liners,  the  living  example  of  how  a 
people,  after  having  shaken  off  its  feet  the  dust  of  the 
old  world,  has  risen  on  the  ruins  of  the  war  conflagration 
to  a  new  work  of  creation,  free  and  untrammelled  by  any 
chains  or  bonds.  We  quite  agree  that  some  illusions 
must  be  left,  and  that  the  proletariat  of  Europe  has 
created  ''the  Red  Legend"  of  a  great  country  where 
Socialism,  unrealisable  to  Philistine  bourgeoisie,  has  not 
only  been  tried,  but  has  now  existed  for  nearly  three 
years,  in  spite  of  the  civil  war,  the  blockade,  and  an 
artificial  isolation  from  the  rest  of  the  cultured  world, 
amid  the  gibes  of  inimically-inclined  people  hedging  it 
round.  We  are  well  aware  that  this  Red  Legend,  this 
Red  Myth  may  exert  an  elevating  influence  on  the 
ardour  of  the  proletarian  vanguard,  causing  its  heart 
to  beat  faster,  proudly  raising  its  head,  and  straining 
to  tenseness  its  revolutionary  muscle.  We  are  loath  to 
confess  that  this  Red  Legend  must  react  with  a  force 
directly  proportionate  to  the  square  of  its  distance,  and 
that  the  number  of  models  of  admirable  energy  worthy 
of  imitation  is  far  below  the  number  of  examples  show- 
ing us  how  a  Social  Revolution  should  not  be  accom- 
plished. 

We  would  ask  you  to  try  and  distinguish  among  the 
many  strange  and  Asiatically-savage  facts  of  Bolshevik- 
Communist  dictatorship  something  more  than  the  mere 
mad  pranks  of  a  Caliban.  -Do  not  forget  that  revolution- 
ary passion  carried  to  fanatical  excess,  added  to  the  im- 
patience characteristic  of  an  active  temperament,  often 
prove  fatal.  You  must  always  bear  in  mind  that  Russia 
has  lived  for  ages  under  a  regime  of  all-around  oppres- 
sion on  the  part  of  the  Government;  that  the  training 
of  the  people  in  ideas  of  democracy  demanded  a  period 
of  time  too  long  for  the  patience  of  a  great  number 


EUROPEAN  LABOR  DISILLUSIONED      201 

of  the  people  themselves.  The  temptation  proved  too 
strong  to  effect  a  leap  right  over  the  dead  level  of 
unpreparedness  with  the  help  of  enlightened  despotism 
and  the  rod  of  Peter  the  Great  shaped  according  to  a 
new  Communist  fashion.  Taking  all  this  into  considera- 
tion, it  will,  perhaps,  be  clear  to  you  why  in  the  tumul- 
tuous chaos  of  the  revolutionary  tempest,  one  part  of 
the  Russian  Socialists  so  quickly  and  easily  cast  off  the 
outward  gilding  of  scientific  Socialism,  showing  under- 
neath the  Asiatic  nature  of  enlightened  despotism  with 
a  Communist  lining. 

In  spite  of  abundant  evidence  of  this  character  con- 
tained in  its  report,  the  British  Labor  Delegation,  being 
divided,  took  no  decisive  stand — and  made  statements 
flatly  contradicted  not  only  by  other  delegations, 
but  by  some  of  their  own  delegates,  as  already  noted. 
This  led  to  further  protest  by  the  Socialist-Revolution- 
ists represented  in  Paris  by  another  leader  known  in  all 
countries,  0.  S.  Minor — a  man,  like  the  others,  who  has 
spent  most  of  his  life  in  prison  or  exile  because  of  his 
socialistic  and  revolutionary  opinions.  Referring  es- 
pecially to  the  failure  of  the  British  Labor  Party  to  do 
anything  on  behalf  of  the  oppressed  population  of  Rus- 
sia, in  particular  the  labor  unionists  and  agriculturists, 
Minor  said: 

Still  less  can  we  understand  how  so  many  of  the 
Socialists  can,  with  a  clear  conscience,  justify  the 
methods  of  Bolshevism  for  Russia,  at  the  same  time 
rejecting  them  for  their  own  countries.  Such  a  view 
shows  either  a  conscious  or  unconscious  deep  contempt 
for  the  Russian  people,  an  insulting  attitude  toward 
them  as  towards  a  nation  of  slaves  for  whom  the  Com- 
munism of  the  Whip  is  the  most  appropriate,  natural 
and  national  brand  of  Socialism. 


202         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

Such  an  attitude  towards  the  working  people  of  Rus- 
sia, proved  to  be  wrong  by  innumerable  uprisings  of 
workers  and  peasants,  we,  Russian  Socialists,  never  ex- 
pected to  meet  with  among  our  European  comrades,  and, 
we  declare,  that  we  cannot  leave  such  a  perversion  of 
mutual  relations  within  the  international  Socialist  family 
without  our  most  emphatic  protest. 


XIII 
THE    CAMOUFLAGED    TRADE   AGITATION 

BOLSHEVIST  diplomats  have  repeatedly  acknowledged 
that  one  of  the  purposes  of  their  negotiations  for  gov- 
ernmental trade  agreements  is  to  obtain  de  facto  recog- 
nition of  the  Soviet  Government  with  all  the  prestige 
that  this  implies.  Krassin,  the  chief  negotiator  with 
Great  Britain,  has  acknowledged  that  there  can  be  very 
little  trade  for  some  time  and  Mr.  Hughes  has  demon- 
strated that  trade  will  depend  upon  the  extension  of 
credit  by  somebody  or  other  to  the  Soviet  Government. 

The  whole  negotiations  are  described  by  Lenin  in  a 
speech  before  the  railwaymen,  reported  by  the  Moscow 
wireless  on  April  3rd,  1921,  as  "our  game  with  the 
bourgeoisie. ' ' 

But  an  additional  purpose  of  these  trade  negotiations 
is  Bolshevist  propaganda  throughout  the  world  and  as 
part  of  this  propaganda  the  word  has  been  passed  along 
by  the  Bolshevists — for  foreign  consumption — that  by 
the  very  act  of  making  trade  agreements  with  capitalists, 
Communism  in  Russia  was  being  abandoned. 

There  is  no  foundation  for  this  claim.  All  the  revolu- 
tionary wars,  insurrections,  general  strikes  and  agita- 
tions openly  subsidized  by  the  Bolshevists  throughout 
the  world  for  the  past  three  years  have  been  going  on 
simultaneously  with  the  agitation  for  trade  agreements 
and  the  effort  to  interest  capitalists  through  concessions, 

203 


204          OUT   OF   THEIR   OWN   MOUTHS 

that  is,  through  alienating  the  patrimony  of  the  Russian 
people  without  their  consent. 

There  can  be  no  question  that  the  Soviet  British  trade 
agreement  was  a  tremendous  victory  for  Soviet  prestige 
both  in  Russia  and  in  every  country  of  the  world.  There 
is  ample  ground  for  the  following  statement  from  Soviet 
Russia  published  on  April  16,  1921 : 

The  full  extent  of  the  victory  won  by  the  workers  of 
Russia  over  the  rulers  of  England  is  revealed  in  the  text 
of  the  Anglo-Russian  trade  agreement  published  in  this 
number  of  Soviet  Russia.  In  the  issue  of  January  22, 
1921,  there  were  published  in  Soviet  Russia  two  prelim- 
inary draft  agreements,  one  submitted  by  the  British 
government  on  November  29,  and  the  other  submitted 
by  the  Soviet  government  on  December  13,  1920.  A 
comparison  of  the  two  papers  Afforded  a  view  of  the 
divergent  and  conflicting  claims  and  purposes  of  the 
Russian  and  British  Governments  respectively.  The 
final  agreement  is  the  outcome  of  the  contest  in  which 
Mr.  Krassin,  representing  the  power  and  purpose  of  the 
Russian  workers,  met  Sir  Robert  Home,  representing 
the  power  and  purpose  of  the  British  imperialists.  It 
was  a  test  of  strength,  a  significant  skirmish,  between 
Communism  and  Capitalism.  We  purpose  here  to  ex- 
amine the  final  document  paragraph  by  paragraph,  to 
see  by  comparison  with  the  previous  drafts  which  of  the 
two  powers  prevailed  in  the  adjustment  of  their  oppos- 
ing contentions.  The  examination  will  show  that  the 
Workers'  Republic  won  an"  overwhelming  victory  over 
the  Capitalist  Empire.  Point  by  point,  clause  by  clause, 
the  claims  and  principles  advanced  by  the  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment broke  down  the  objections  and  evasions  of  the 
British  Government. 

The  final  document  consists  of  a  preamble  and  four- 
teen articles,  and  is  accompanied  by  a  separate  declara- 
tion of  claims,  signed  on  the  same  day. 


CAMOUFLAGED    TRADE    AGITATION    205 

The  very  fact  that  the  British  Government  claimed 
until  the  last  moment  that  there  was  to  be  no  political 
recognition  of  the  Soviet  Government  shows  how  this 
aspect  of  the  agreement  was  a  defeat  for  Great  Britain 
and  a  victory  for  the  Soviets — a  victory  undoubtedly 
due,  as  Krassin  claims,  to  the  Bolshevist  propaganda. 
Yet  it  was  only  a  few  weeks  after  the  agreement  had 
been  signed  that  the  British  courts  declared  that  it 
amounted  to  a  de  facto  recognition,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  it  is  distinctly  stated  in  that  document  that  it  was 
only  preliminary  to  such  recognition.  A  tremendous 
comment  on  this  trade  agreement  is  the  fact  that  the 
Bolshevists  apparently  continued  to  expend  the  same  vast 
sums  of  money  in  Great  Britain  for  the  overthrow  of 
the  British  Government  after  that  agreement  as  before. 
Apparently  the  Bolshevists  put  special  hopes  upon  the 
coal  strike  (April  and  May,  1921).  Although  this  was 
a  purely  economic  struggle  in  the  fundamental  questions 
raised,  a  very  considerable  minority  in  the  organization 
openly  attempted  to  take  advantage  of  the  crisis  for 
revolutionary  purposes.  In  view  of  this  fact  the  official 
statement  made  in  the  House  of  Commons  by  Edward 
Shortt,  Secretary  for  Home  Affairs,  on  May  12,  is  of  the 
utmost  significance : 

The  British  Government  is  considering  the  possibility 
of  introducing  legislation  to  prohibit  the  receipt  of 
foreign  money  in  the  United  Kingdom  intended  to  pro- 
mote a  revolutionary  movement  or  to  sustain  a  revolu- 
tionary propaganda. 

If  such  agitation  was  indeed  being  carried  on  by  the 
Bolshevists  it  was  done  with  the  encouragement  of  the 
British  Government  itself. 


206         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

From  the  very  first  Lenin  has  advocated  this  policy, 
with  the  expressed  belief  that  Bolshevist-aided  revolu- 
tions would  soon  overthrow  all  existing  governments  and 
release  him  from  his  obligations. 

As  early  as  February,  1919,  Tchitcherin,  the  Soviet 
Commissary  for  Foreign  Affairs,  sent  to  the  governments 
of  Great  Britain,  France,  Italy,  Japan  and  the  United 
States  a  note  in  which  he  said: 


Seeing  the  great  interest  which  has  always  been  shown 
by  foreign  capital  for  the  exploitation  of  Russia 's  natural 
riches,  the  Russian  Soviet  Government  is  disposed  to 
grant  concessions  upon  mines,  forests,  and  so  on,  to 
citizens  of  the  Entente  Powers,  under  conditions  which 
must  be  carefully  determined  so  that  the  economic  and 
social  order  of  Soviet  Russia  should  not  suffer  from  the 
internal  rule  of  these  concessions. 


At  the  meeting  of  the  Russian  Communist  Party  on 
March  15th,  1921,  Kameneff  used  an  identical  argument 
(Moscow  Wireless,  March  18,  1921) : 

.  .  .  Can  we  without  the  assistance  of  foreign  capital 
rapidly  restore  our  economic  life?  No,  we  cannot.  We 
must  have  the  assistance  of  foreign  experts.  By  heroic 
concentration  of  strength  we  might  have  restored  our 
economic  life  independently"  but  for  this  we  would  re- 
quire a  very  long  time. 

Yes,  the  foreign  capitalists  will  not  assist  us  for  noth- 
ing! We  will  have  to  pay  them  a  liberal  tribute.  .  .  . 
World  capital  having  received  this  tribute  from  us  will 
increase  the  productive  power  cf  Russia  and  will  thus 
play  the  role  predicted  for  it  by  Marx:  Capital  will  dig 
for  itself  its  historic  grave. 


CAMOUFLAGED    TRADE    AGITATION    207 

In  the  Pravda  (November  30th,  1920),  Lenin  defended 
the  policy  of  concessions  with  these  expressions: 

We  have  defeated  the  world  bourgeoisie  up  to  the 
present  owing  to  the  fact  that  they  can  not  unite.  Both 
the  Brest-Litovsk  and  Versailles  treaties  have  tended  to 
keep  them  apart.  A  bitter  hatred  is  now  growing  up 
between  America  and  Japan.  We  are  utilizing  this, 
and  are  offering  Kamchatka  on  a  long  lease,  instead 
of  giving  it  away  without  payment,  considering  that 
Japan  has  taken  away  already  by  military  force  a  large 
territory  in  the  Far  East.  .  .  . 

I  must  repeat,  concessions  are  a  continuation  of  war 
on  an  economic  basis  but  instead  of  destroying  they 
reconstruct  our  productivity.  They  surely  will  try  to 
deceive  us,  to  evade  our  laws,  but  for  such  purposes 
there  exist  our  respective  institutions,  all  Russian  Extra- 
ordinary Commission,  Moscow  Extraordinary  Commis- 
sion, Provincial  Extraordinary  Commission,  etc.,  and  we 
are  sure  that  we  shall  be  victorious. 


It  must  be  remembered  that  these  Extraordinary  Com- 
missions are  the  official  Soviet  bodies  for  enforcing  the 
"red  terror." 

In  his  closing  speech  at  the  March  (1921)  Congress 
of  the  Russian  Communist  Party  Lenin  exposed  all  the 
main  elements  of  Bolshevist  policy.  His  internal  policy, 
as  there  developed,  has  been  discussed  at  the  end  of 
Chapter  VII.  It  is  closely  linked  with  the  external 
policy.  Once  more — after  the  adoption  of  his  "new" 
proposals  by  the  Congress — as  in  his  opening  speech,  he 
based  everything  on  the  coming  world  revolution:  "But 
when  we  look  on  our  party  as  the  hearth  of  world  revo- 
lution, and  observe  the  campaign  now  being  conducted 


208          OUT   OF   THEIR   OWN   MOUTHS 

against  us  by  the  governments  of  the  world  there  is  no 
room  for  doubt."  That  is,  the  growing  certainty  of 
world  revolution,  removes  all  doubt  of  Bolshevist  suc- 
cess in  impending  negotiations  with  foreign  governments 
for  the  official  recognition  of  the  Soviet  title  to  Russia 
and  all  the  resources  and  human  chattels  it  contains! 
The  Soviet  leader  does  not  deny  the  weakness  of  the 
Soviets.  But  let  it  be  remembered  that  he  ceaselessly 
drills  his  followers  to  the  thought  that  all  other  nations 
are  weaker  still!  As  he  says  in  his  speech,  "All  this  in- 
formation given  out  by  the  international  bourgeoisie  .  .  . 
reveals  once  more  how  we  are  surrounded  by  enemies, 
and  how  feeble  these  enemies  have  grown  within  the  past 
year!" 

Bearing  this  blind  and  fanatical  optimism  in  mind 
we  can  better  grasp  other  parts  of  the  speech  in  which 
Lenin  shows  he  is  counting  absolutely  on  getting  from 
America  the  credit  and  supplies  to  revive  Russian  Bol- 
shevism by  means  of  a  trade  agreement  on  the  British 
model!  As  quoted  by  Soviet  Russia  (May  14,  1921) 
Lenin  said: 

The  world  press  syndicate — freedom  of  the  press  con- 
sists there  in  the  fact  that  99  per  cent  of  the  press  is 
owned  by  financial  magnates  manipulating  hundreds  of 
millions  of  rubles — opened  the  world-wide  campaigns  of 
the  imperialists,  with  the  aim  of  preventing,  first,  trade 
relations  with  England  which  were  begun  by  Krassin, 
and  also  the  imminent  conclusion  of  trade  relations  with 
America.  This  shows  that  the  enemies  who  surround  us, 
no  longer  able  to  bring  about  intervention,  are  counting 
upon  a  revolt.  The  events  at  Kronstadt  revealed  ties 
with  the  international  bourgeoisie;  and  in  addition  to 
it  we  see  that  more  than  anything  else  they  now  fear, 


CAMOUFLAGED    TRADE    AGITATION    209 

from  the  practical  standpoint  of  international  capital, 
the  sound  establishment  of  trade  relations.  But  they 
will  be  unable  to  prevent  it.  There  are  now  in  Moscow 
representatives  of  big  capital,  who  did  not  believe  these 
rumors,  and  they  have  told  us  how  in  America  a  certain 
group  of  citizens  carried  on  an  unprecedented  agitation 
for  Soviet  Russia.  This  group  made  extracts  of  every- 
thing printed  about  Russia  for  a  few  months  in  news- 
papers of  the  most  diverse  kinds — about  the  flight  of 
Lenin  and  Trotsky,  about  Lenin's  shooting  Trotsky  and 
vice-versa,  and  they  published  all  this  in  the  form  of  a 
pamphlet.  Better  agitation  for  the  Soviet  power  cannot 
be  imagined.  The  contemporary  American  bourgeois 
press  has  completely  described  itself.  .  .  . 

Was  there  ever  a  wilder  farrago  of  gross  exaggeration 
and  misstatement  ?  A  few  foolish  rumors  are  taken  from 
thousands  of  substantiated  dispatches  and  reproduced 
as  giving  a  fair  picture  of  the  American  press  on  Russia ! 
But  we  must  note,  especially,  that  Lenin  appreciates  the 
aid  he  is  getting  in  his  propaganda  from  "a  certain 
group"  of  American  citizens,  while  at  the  same  time  he 
openly  boasts  of  the  British  trade  agreement  from  the 
practical  standpoint  as  a  defeat  of  international  capital, 
i.e.,  a  defeat  of  all  existing  governments  (all  regarded  as 
capitalistic  by  Lenin)  and  of  the  existing  social  system. 

A  part  of  the  so-called  trade  agitation  has  been  the 
claim  that  the  Soviets  were  abandoning  Communism  not 
only  in  making  trade  agreements  with  capitalists  but 
in  other  directions.  Such  changes  as  have  in  fact  taken 
place  could  be  so  absurdly  misinterpreted  and  misunder- 
stood only  by  those  who  have  made  no  effort  to  follow 
the  Bolshevist  policy.  The  Bolshevist  chiefs,  and  es- 
pecially their  foreign  diplomats,  have  never  hesitated 


210         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

to  use  any  and  all  methods  for  their  purposes.  In  a 
letter  which  appeared  in  Pravda  on  December  10th, 
1920,  addressed  to  the  Italian  Socialists  at  a  moment 
which  Lenin  thought  to  be  "the  eve  of  the  revolution," 
the  Bolshevist  leader  thus  advised  the  Italian  revolu- 
tionists : 

The  Italian  party,  in  order  to  carry  out  the  revolution 
successfully,  must  still  take  a  certain  number  of  steps 
to  the  Left  without  tying  itself  down  and  without  for- 
getting that  circumstances  may  very  well  demand  some 
steps  to  the  Right. 

This  advice  is  typical.  Foreign  trade  agreements  and 
other  negotiations  regarded  abroad  as  compromises  are 
not  only  presented  to  the  Russian  people  as  victories 
but  are  evidently  so  considered  by  the  Bolshevist  chiefs. 
The  apparent  concessions  made  to  capitalism  by  the  Rus- 
sian Communist  Congress  about  the  time  of  the  British 
Trade  Agreement  are  explained  by  Krassin,  the  chief 
negotiator,  as  follows: 

As  we  recede  from  wartime  conditions  and  advance 
toward  reconstruction  and  peace,  we  proceed  toward  a 
business-like  adaptation  of  our  methods  to  those  of  real 
life.  We  call  it  neither  going  to  the  right  nor  to  the 
left.  Whatever  reports  we  may  receive  here,  I  am  sure 
that  Lenin  will  never  abandon  his  communistic  prin- 
ciples, but  as  he  is  a  practical  man  with  a  practical 
mind,  he  may  decide  in  one  matter  or  another  to  take 
a  practical  course  with  regard  to  present-day  conditions. 

A  Moscow  wireless  (April  16th,  1921)  cynically  and 
frankly  states  the  Bolshevists'  plan  to  repudiate  any 


CAMOUFLAGED    TRADE    AGITATION    211 

treaty  at  the  first  favorable  moment,  as  they  did  that  of 
Brest-Litovsk.  It  may  be  said  that  the  following  dis- 
patch is  for  home  consumption  by  the  ultra-revolutionists 
of  Soviet  Russia.  But  as  long  as  such  matter — uncon- 
tradicted — is  the  sole  pabulum  officially  furnished  the 
Russian  people  (the  opposition  being  prohibited)  how 
can  we  expect  anything  but  a  continuation  of  treaty- 
breaking  to  result  ?  The  dispatch  is  as  follows : 

The  present  peace  is  only  an  armed  truce.  We  cannot 
base  our  peaceful  policies  on  the  present  peace  treaties, 
because  the  peace  itself  is  not  secured.  All  Europe  is 
boiling.  We  do  not  know  what  will  happen  to-morrow. 
All  our  treaties  are  just  like  the  Brest  treaty  and  may 
suddenly  become  pieces  of  paper.  But  it  makes  no  dif- 
ference to  us  at  present.  We  are  striving  to  get  in  touch 
with  the  Far  West  (East?).  Our  chief  aim  still  remains 
the  fight  with  capitalism.  But  first  we  must  give  our 
country  time  to  rest.  For  a  while  we  are  smiling  sweetly 
at  Lloyd  George  and  shaking  his  hand,  but  our  policy 
remains  the  same.  We  shall  profit  by  the  short  breath- 
ing space  offered  us  and  then  deal  a  death  blow  to  capi- 
talism. 

Among  the  working  people  the  agitation  for  a  trade 
agreement  with  Soviet  Russia  is  put  forward  on  the 
double  ground  that  it  would  give  employment  to  the 
American  workers  and  that  it  would  relieve  the  suffer- 
ing in  Russia.  The  argument  that  it  would  give  employ- 
ment to  American  labor  is  fully  answered  by  Secretary 
Hughes  in  response  to  a  letter  by  President  Gompers 
requesting  information  in  this  matter.  President  Gom- 
pers' letter  was  as  follows: 


212         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

March  15,  1921. 
SIR: 

If  it  is  not  incompatible  with  the  public  interest  would 
it  be  possible  for  me  to  secure  information  from  your 
department  relative  to  the  situation  in  Soviet  Russia? 

There  is  much  propaganda  being  circulated  in  the 
United  States  claiming  that  the  demand  for  manufac- 
tured goods  in  Russia  is  so  great  and  the  purchasing 
power  of  the  Russian  Soviet  government  so  vast  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  determine  the  actual  capacity  of 
the  Russian  market  to  absorb  goods  of  foreign  manu- 
facture. Ths  scarcity  of  goods  is  laid  to  the  blockade, 
which  as  I  understand  it  was  removed  July  8,  1920. 
It  is  said  that  the  pressing  needs  of  the  Russians  are 
large  quantities  of  the  following : 

"Locomotives,  cars,  rails,  tires,  springs,  etc.  Tractors, 
plows,  reapers,  mowers,  binders,  harrows,  and  other  tools, 
large  and  small,  binder  twine,  motor  trucks.  Leather 
goods:  shoes,  etc.  Textiles.  Chemicals,  drugs,  soap. 
Notions.  Belting,  all  kinds.  Oil  well  machinery  and 
piping.  Mining  machinery.  Rubber  goods.  Ties. 
Typewriters.  Sewing  machines.  Surgical  instruments. 
Machinery  and  machine  tools  of  all  sorts.  Printing 
presses,  and  printing  supplies.  Small  tools.  Sheet  iron. 
Tool  steel.  Camera  and  camera  supplies,  films,  etc.  Raw 
cotton. ' ' 

It  is  also  claimed  that  the  Commissariat  of  Foreign 
Trade  of  the  Soviet  government  has  given  orders  for 
the  purchase  of  the  following  in  America : 

"Agricultural  machinery,  including  tractors,  mowers, 
binders,  reapers,  plows,  cultivators,  etc.,  specified  orders 
to  the  extent  of  $50,000,000.00;  machine  tools,  between 
$3,000,000.00  to  $5,000,000.00;  small  tools,  files,  drills,  etc. 
between  $3,000,000.00  and  $5,000,000.00;  30,000  to 
100,000  tons  of  rails;  10,000  tons  of  locomotive  ties; 
250  tons  of  spring  steel  for  locomotive -and  car  springs; 
10,000  tons  of  sheet  iron;  50,000  tons  of  piping." 


CAMOUFLAGED    TRADE    AGITATION    213 

These  figures,  it  is  claimed,  do  not  represent  all  the 
orders  that  would  be  placed  at  once. 

It  is  alleged  that  the  Federal  Reserve  Board  has 
refused  to  permit  the  transfer  of  funds  to  the  United 
States  from  the  Soviet  Russian  government  in  order  to 
pay  for  the  goods,  although  payment  in  gold  is  guaran- 
teed. It  is  claimed  that  the  American  manufacturers 
are  prevented  from  accepting  the  gold  on  the  probability 
that  it  was  illegally  acquired  by  the  Soviet  government. 

It  is  also  said  that  the  following  raw  materials  are 
ready  for  shipment  to  the  United  States  if  only  the 
American  government  recognizes  the  Soviet  government 
of  Russia: 

"Lumber,  unlimited  quantities;  Flax,  20,000  tons; 
Hemp,  10,000  tons;  Furs,  9,000,000  pelts;  Bristles, 
sorted  and  cleaned,  1,000  tons;  Horse  hair,  2,000  tons; 
Manganese  ore,  250,000  tons;  Asbestos,  8,000  tons; 
Hides,  3,500,000  skins;  Platinum,  large  quantities; 
Petroleum  and  petroleum  products,  2,000,000  tons." 

Another  claim  made  is  that  if  the  restrictions  placed 
on  trade  with  Russia  were  removed  it  would  place  in 
operation  many  mills,  shops  and  factories  now  closed 
down  and  would  give  employment  to  the  unemployed 
of  America. 

This  propaganda  is  being  widely  circulated  among 
labor  organizations  and  I  have  received  many  letters 
asking  me  what  is  the  truth.  In  this  connection  I  have 
repeatedly  called  attention  to  the  action  of  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor  convention  at  Montreal,  June  7-19, 
1920,  as  follows : 

Resolved,  That  the  American  Federation  of  Labor 
is  not  justified  in  taking  any  action  which  could 
be  construed  as  an  assistance  to,  or  approval  of,  the 
Soviet  government  of  Russia  as  long  as  that  government 
is  based  upon  authority  which  has  not  been  vested  in 
it  by  a  popular  representative  national  assemblage  of 
the  Russian  people ;  or  so  long  as  it  endeavors  to  create 
rcrolutions  in  the  well-established,  civilized  nations  of 


214         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

the  world;  or  so  long  as  it  advocates  and  applies  the 
militarization  of  labor  and  prevents  the  organizing  and 
functioning  of  trade  unions  and  the  maintenance  of  a 
free  press  and  free  public  assemblage." 

This  resolution  was  based  on  a  report  made  by  the 
Executive  Council  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor 
and  previously  unanimously  approved  by  the  convention 
as  follows: 

"Bolshevism  has  been  a  lure  for  some  of  our  people 
and  its  doctrines  have  been  propagated  with  great  vigor. 
This  hideous  doctrine  has  found  converts  among  two 
classes  of  people  principally — those  intellectuals,  so- 
called,  who  have  no  occupation  save  that  of  following 
one  fad  after  another,  and  those  so  beaten  in  the  game 
of  life  that  they  find  no  appeal  in  anything  except  the 
most  desperate  and  illogical  schemes.  The  rank  and  file 
of  the  organized  labor  movement,  as  was  to  have  been 
expected,  has  given  no  countenance  to  the  propaganda 
of  Bolshevism,  but  has,  on  the  contrary,  been  its  most 
effective  opponent  in  America." 

Whether  the  statements  in  the  circular  are  true  or 
untrue,  the  widest  publicity  of  the  facts  should  be  given. 
It  would  be  more  effective  if  it  could  be  in  official  form. 
If  that  can  not  be  done  the  proper  knowledge  should  be 
transmitted  to  the  various  organizations  that  have  resolu- 
tions on  the  subject  before  them  for  approval  or  disap- 
proval and  only  awaiting  an  answer  from  me  as  to  the 
real  situation. 

I,  therefore,  request,  if  it  is  not  contrary  to  the  rules 
of  the  Department  of  State  or  if  not  against  the  public 
interest,  that  you  furnish  me  with  such  information  as 
you  might  have  on  the  matter.  I  would  also  like  to 
know  the  amount  of  exports  and  imports  between  the 
United  States  and  Russia  for  a  number  of  years  preced- 
ing the  war,  as  it  is  claimed  these  would  be  enormous 
because  they  have  been  enormous  in  the  past. 

This  question  is  of  vital  interest  to  the  people  of  the 
United  States  as  they  should  not  be  misled  by  propa- 


CAMOUFLAGED    TRADE    AGITATION    215 

ganda  that  is  consciously  or  unconsciously  directed  to 
aid  the  Soviet  government  of  Russia  against  the  interests 
of  our  people.  I  therefore  trust  that  I  am  not  asking 
too  much. 

Yours  very  truly, 

(Signed)   Sam'l  Gompers. 

President, 

American  Federation  of  Labor. 
Hon.  Charles  Evans  Hughes, 
Secretary  of  State, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

Here  is  the  response  of  the  Secretary  of  State: 

DEPARTMENT    OF    STATE. 

Washington. 
Mr.  Samuel  Gompers, 

President,  American  Federation  of  Labor, 

Washington,  D.  C. 
SIR: 

The  receipt  is  acknowledged  of  your  letter  of  March 
15,  1921,  in  regard  to  the  trade  relations  between  the 
United  States  and  Russia. 

I  recognize  the  interest  of  the  American  people  in  the 
questions  you  raise  and  I  take  pleasure  in  replying  in 
detail  to  them. 

In  reply  to  your  first  statement,  it  is  evident  that  after 
years  of  war,  during  which  normal  industry  was  diverted 
to  the  production  of  war  supplies  and  accumulated  stocks 
were  consumed,  Russia  does  not  now  possess  important , 
quantities  of  commodities  which  might  be  exported.  It 
should  be  remembered  that  in  addition  to  the  period 
of  the  war  against  Germany,  Russia  has  now  passed 
through  more  than  three  years  of  a  civil  war  during 
which  industrial  activities  have  been  almost  completely 
paralyzed.  In  fact  the  devastation  of  industry  in  Russia 
has  been  so  complete,  the  poverty  of  the  country  is  so 


216         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

acute,  the  people  are  so  hungry  and  the  demand  for 
commodities  is  so  great  that  at  present  Russia  represents 
a  gigantic  economic  vacuum  and  no  evidence  exists  that 
the  unfortunate  situation  above  described  is  likely  to 
be  alleviated  so  long  as  the  present  political  and  economic 
system  continues.  Though  there  is  almost  no  limit  to 
the  amount  and  variety  of  commodities  urgently  needed 
by  Russia,  the  purchasing  power  of  that  country  is  now 
at  a  minimum,  and  the  demand  must  consequently  re- 
main unsatisfied. 

In  some  respects  the  condition  of  Russia  is  analogous 
to  that  of  other  European  countries.  The  war  has  left 
the  people  with  diminished  productive  man-power  and 
largely  increased  numbers  of  the  disabled,  the  sick  and 
the  helpless.  In  one  important  respect,  however,  Rus- 
sia's condition  does  not  correspond  to  that  of  other  bel- 
ligerent states  in  the  world  war.  While  those  states 
are  taking  such  action  as  is  likely  to  reestablish  con- 
fidence, the  attitude  and  action  of  the  present  authorities 
of  Russia  have  tended  to  undermine  its  political  and 
economic  relations  with  other  countries.  The  Russian 
people  are  unable  to  obtain  credit  which  otherwise  might 
be  based  on  the  vast  potential  wealth  of  Russia  and  are 
compelled  to  be  deprived  of  commodities  immediately 
necessary  for  consumption,  raw  materials  and  permanent 
productive  equipment.  The  effect  of  this  condition  is 
that  Russia  is  unable  to  renew  normal  economic 
activities,  and  apparently  will  be  unable  to  obtain 
urgently  needed  commodities  until  credits  may  be  ex- 
tended to  Russia  on  a  sound  basis. 

It  should  not  be  overlooked  that  there  has  been  a 
steady  degeneration  in  even  those  industries  in  Soviet 
Russia  that  were  not  dependent  upon  imports  of  either 
raw  material  or  partly  finished  products,  nor  in  which 
has  there  been  any  shortage  of  labor.  The  Russian 
production  of  coal,  of  iron  and  steel,  of  flax,  cotton, 
leather,  lumber,  sulfuric  acid,  or  copper,  of  agricultural 
products,  of  textiles,  and  the  maintenance  and  repair  ^ 


CAMOUFLAGED    TRADE    AGITATION    217 

of  railroad  equipment,  have  degenerated  steadily  from 
their  level  of  production  at  the  time  of  the  Bolshevik 
revolution.  There  can  be  no  relation  of  the  failure  of 
all  these  industries  to  blockades  or  to  civil  war,  for 
most  of  them  require  no  imports,  and  the  men  mobilized 
since  the  Soviet  revolution  were  far  less  in  number  than 
before  that  event. 

During  the  existence  of  civil  war  in  Russia,  her  ports 
were  in  the  hands  of  anti-Soviet  forces.  However,  trade 
with  the  world  through  Baltic  ports  was  opened  in  April, 
1920.  Restrictions  on  direct  trade  with  Russia  were 
removed  by  the  United  States  on  July  8,  1920.  The 
conclusion  of  treaties  of  peace  with  the  Baltic  States 
enabled  Russia  freely  to  enter  upon  trade  with  Europe 
and  the  United  States.  Both  American  and  European 
goods  have  been  sold  to  Russia,  but  the  volume  of  trade 
has  been  unimportant  due  to  the  inability  of  Russia  to 
pay  for  imports. 

As  suggested  in  your  second  statement,  it  is  true  that 
agents  purporting  to  be  representatives  of  the  so-called 
Bolshevist  Commissariat  of  Foreign  Trade  have  placed 
immense  orders  for  the  purchase  of  goods  in  the  United 
States,  Europe  and  Asia.  It  is  estimated  that  perhaps 
six  and  one  half  billion  dollars'  worth  of  orders  have 
been  booked.  But  shipments  as  a  result  of  these  orders 
have  been  made  only  in  small  volume  because  the  Soviet 
agents  were  unable  either  to  pay  cash  or  to  obtain  credit  so 
as  to  insure  the  delivery  of  the  goods  ordered.  The 
actual  result  of  the  placing  of  these  immense  orders  on 
the  part  of  the  Soviet  regime  has  not,  therefore,  ma- 
terially stimulated  industry  in  the  countries  in  which 
the  orders*  were  placed,  but  has  chiefly  resulted  in 
further  impairing  the  credit  of  the  Soviet  regime  due 
to  its  inability  to  carry  out  the  transactions  which  it  had 
undertaken. 

Much  has  been  written  about  the  large  sums  of  Rus- 
sian gold  which  have  found  their  way  abroad  in  ex- 
change for  foreign  goods.  In  reality,  such  transfers  of 


218         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

gold  have  been  relatively  small.  According  to  the  most 
liberal  estimates  the  Soviet  authorities  do  not  now  have 
in  their  possession  more  than  $175,000,000  worth  of  gold. 
It  is  apparent  that  the  proportionate  share  of  this 
amount  of  gold  which  might  be  expected  to  reach  the 
United  States,  and  even  the  immediate  expenditure  of 
all  of  this  amount  of  gold  in  the  United  States,  would 
not  have  a  pronounced  or  lasting  effect  upon  the  ad- 
vancement of  American  industry  and  trade,  while  its 
loss  to  Russia  would  take  away  the  scant  hope  that  is 
left  of  a  sound  reorganization  of  the  Russian  system  of 
currency  and  finance. 

In  response  to  your  question  regarding  the  transfer 
of  funds  from  Russia  to  the  United  States  it  may  be 
stated  that  there  are  no  restrictions  on  the  importation 
of  Russian  gold  into  the  United  States,  and  since  Decem- 
ber 18,  1920,  there  have  been  no  restrictions  on  the 
exportation  of  coin,  bullion  and  currency  to  Soviet  Rus- 
sia or  on  dealings  or  exchange  transactions  in.  Russian 
roubles  or  on  transfers  of  credit  or  exchange  transac- 
tions with  Soviet  Russia.  It  is  true  that  no  assurances 
can  be  given  that  Russian  gold  will  be  accepted  by  the 
Federal  Reserve  Banks  or  the  Mint,  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  these  public  institutions  must  be  fully  assured  that 
the  legal  title  to  the  gold  accepted  by  them  is  not  open 
to  question. 

It  has  often  been  stated  that  if  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  would  recognize  the  so-called  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment, Russia  would  immediately  export  immense 
quantities  of  lumber,  flax,  hemp,  fur  and  other  commo- 
dities. The  facts  in  regard  to  supplies  in  Russia  com- 
pletely refute  such  statements.  Russia  does  not  to-day 
have  on  hand  for  export  commodities  which  might  be 
made  the  basis  of  immediately  profitable  trade  with  the 
United  States.  Furthermore,  the  transportation  system 
is  utterly  inadequate  to  move  any  large  quantity  of 
goods  either  in  the  interior  of  Russia  or  to  Russian 
ports.  The  export  of  such  commodities  as  exist  in  Rus- 


CAMOUFLAGED    TRADE    AGITATION    219 

sia  at  the  present  time  would  result  merely  in  further 
increasing  the  misery  of  the  Russian  people. 

The  issue  of  January  1,  1921  of  "Economic  Life,"  an 
official  organ  of  the  so-called  Soviet  Government,  reports 
that  the  production  of  lumber  amounted  to  seventy 
million  cubic  feet  in  1920,  as  compared  with  four  hun- 
dred million  cubic  feet  in  1912.  The  production  of 
lumber  is,  therefore,  less  than  one-fifth  of  the  pre-war 
level,  even  though  the  lumber  industry  is  in  far  better 
circumstances  than  other  important  Russian  industries. 
This  same  situation  is  further  illustrated  by  the  follow- 
ing article  appearing  in  the  "Economic  Life"  of  Feb- 
ruary 6,  1921: 

"By  December  20  the  following  supplies  were  gath- 
ered: 

Horse  hides 3,831  12    per  cent  of  am  t  expected 

Colt    hides 1,142  35  ' ' 

Cattle  hides 22,701  20.6  " 

Calf  hides 15,679  14.6  " 

Sheep   hides 37,771  58  " 

Flax  poods 22,871  12  " 

Hemp    6,863  18  '< 

Bristles  99  14  " 

"The  Government  of  Ekaterinburg,  which  occupies  a 
high  place  in  furnishing  food  supplies,  for  several  rea- 
sons has  proven  to  be  very  weak  in  furnishing  raw 
materials. 

"During  the  past  week  the  results  of  the  work  have 
become  still  smaller,  reaching  zero  in  some  places,  in 
spite  of  the  extreme  energy  and  intensity  of  the  work." 

Note  is  taken  of  the  statement  that  if  restriction  on 
trade  with  Russia  were  removed,  many  mills,  shops  and 
factories  in  this  country,  which  are  now  closed,  would 
resume  operations,  and  unemployment  would  thereby  be 
diminished.  Even  before  the  war,  trade  with  Russia, 
including  both  exports  and  imports,  constituted  only 
one  and  three-tenths  per  cent  of  the  total  trade  of  the 
United  States.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  purchasing 


220         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

power  of  Russia  is  now  greatly  diminished,  as  compared 
with  pre-war  years,  it  is  evident  that  at  present  even 
under  the  most  favorable  circumstances  the  trade  of 
Russia  could  have  but  a  minor  influence  on  the  indus- 
trial and  agricultural  prosperity  of  the  United  States. 
Under  conditions  actually  prevailing  in  Russia,  that 
trade  is  of  even  less  importance;  a  statement  amply 
demonstrated  by  the  fact  that  though  restrictions  on 
trade  with  Russia  have  been  eliminated,  no  business  of 
consequence  with  that  country  has  developed. 

According  to  the  reports  of  the  Department  of  Com- 
merce, our  total  trade  with  Russia  for  the  fiscal  year 
ending  June  30,  1913,  was  as  follows: 

Imports  from  European  Eussia $26,958,690 

Imports  from  Asiatic  Eussia 2,356,527 

$29,315,217 

Exports  to  European  Eussia $25,363,795 

Exports  to  Asiatic  Eussia 1,101,419 

$26,465,214 
Total  trade  between  Eussia  and  the  United 

States    $55,780,431 

The  total  imports  into  the  United  States  for  the  fiscal 
year  ending  June  30,  1913,  were  $1,813,008,234,  and  the 
total  exports  for  the  same  year  were  $2,465,884,149,  the 
total  of  both  imports  and  exports  amounting,  therefore, 
to  $4,278,892,383. 

For  the  calendar  year  1920,  the  total  trade  of  the 
United  States  was: 

Exports    $8,228,000,000 

Imports    5,279,000,000 

Total    $13,507,000,000 

Excluding  Finland,  the  Baltic  States,  Armenia,  and 
Georgia  and  Siberia  for  the  periods  when  they  have  been 


CAMOUFLAGED    TRADE    AGITATION    221 

free  of  Soviet  Domination,  the  trade  of  the  United  States 
with  Russia  during  1920  was  absolutely  negligible,  prob- 
ably amounted  to  less  than  $4,000,000. 

Though  figures  for  trade  with  Russia  during  that 
period  are  not  available,  there  is  every  reason  to  believe 
that  it  was  of  far  less  relative  importance  than  in  1913. 

It  is  unquestionably  desirable  that  intimate  and 
mutually  profitable  commercial  relations  on  an  extensive 
scale  be  established  between  the  United  States  and  Rus- 
sia, and  it  is  the  sincere  hope  of  this  Government  that 
there  may  be  readjustments  in  Russia  which  will  make 
it  possible  for  that  country  to  resume  its  proper  place 
in  the  economic  life  of  the  world. 

I  am  enclosing  herewith  as  of  possible  interest  to  you 
in  this  connection,  copies  of  the  Department 's  announce- 
ment of  July  7,  1920,  of  the  Treasury  Department's 
announcement  of  December  20,  1920,  of  a  statement 
made  by  Mr.  Alfred  "W.  Kliefoth,  of  the  Foreign  Trade 
Adviser's  Office  of  this  Department,  before  the  Com- 
mittee on  Foreign  Affairs  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, and  of  an  announcement  made  to  the  press  by  the 
Secretary  of  State,  dated  March  25,  1921 ;  also  a  brief 
statement  of  the  total  trade  with  Russia  for  the  fiscal 
years  ending  June  30,  1911  and  June  30,  1912. 

I  would  also  invite  your  attention  to  the  recently 
published  hearings  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs 
of  the  House  of  Representatives,  entitled  ' '  Conditions  in 
Russia, ' '  and  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations  of 
the  United  States  Senate,  entitled  "Relations  with  Rus- 
sia." The  former  was  held  in  compliance  with  House 
Resolution  No.  635,  and  the  latter  in  compliance  with 
Senate  Joint  Resolution  No.  164. 

I  am,  Sir, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

(Signed)  Charles  E.  Hughes. 
Enclosures: 

(5)  as  stated  above. 


222         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

This  disposes  of  the  argument  that  a  trade  agreement 
with  Soviet  Russia  could  materially  aid  American  in- 
dustry. Even  if  trade  were  resumed  on  a  pre-war  basis, 
which  is  practically  impossible,  it  would  scarcely  increase 
our  exports  by  one  per  cent.  But  our  foreign  trade 
absorbs  only  one-tenth  of  the  product  of  American  in- 
dustry. It  is,  therefore,  practically  impossible  that  the 
reopening  of  Russian  trade  on  this  comparatively  large 
scale  could  keep  American  industry  going  for  more  than 
three  or  four  hours! 

Secretary  of  State  Hughes  has  given  a  conclusive 
answer  to  the  argument  that  a  trade  agreement  might 
be  materially  helpful  to  the  Russian  people  as  long  as 
they  are  still  the  helpless  subjects  of  the  present  "gov- 
ernment." In  addition  we  may  point  out  that  two 
efforts  were  recently  made  to  help  the  Russian  people, 
one  through  the  Norwegian  statesman,  Nansen,  and  the 
other  through  the  Russian  cooperative  organizations. 
The  Soviet  Government  refused  both  offers  because  the 
supplies  to  be  sent  were  not  to  be  left  in  the  hands  of 
the  Bolshevists.  Rather  than  to  lose  this  chance  of 
strengthening  their  own  hold  over  the  Russian  people 
they  decided  to  let  the  suffering  of  their  helpless  subjects 
continue. 

It  must  also  be  remembered  in  this  connection  that 
whatever  the  hidden  objects  of  the  British  trade  agree- 
ment, the  position  of  the  British  Government  would  be 
strengthened  by  a  similar  policy  on  the  part  of  the 
United  States.  The  report  sent  out  by  Moscow  wireless 
on  November  17th,  1920,  that  "England  is  carrying  on 
in  the  United  States  agitation  in  favor  of  a  renewal 
of  trade  relations  with  Soviet  Russia"  is,  at  least,  plau- 


CAMOUFLAGED  TRADE   AGITATION     223 

sible.  A  number  of  well-known  Englishmen  have  been 
agitating  for  that  object  by  speeches  and  by  articles 
in  the  American  press.  Possibly  the  intention  is  that 
America  shall  provide  the  credits  without  which  the 
British- Soviet  agreement  must  remain  an  empty  form. 
This  agitation  certainly  offers  no  reason  why  America 
should  fall  in  with  the  designs  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment. The  British  Empire  is  threatened  by  the  Soviet 
military  forces  around  the  Black  Sea  and  in  Mesopo- 
tamia, Persia,  Afghanistan  and  the  Pamir  region  and 
by  Bolshevist  propaganda  not  only  in  these  districts  but 
also  in  Turkey,  Egypt,  India,  and  China.  The  foreign 
policies  of  the  powerful  British  Labor  Party  as  well  as 
the  Independent  Liberals  are  thoroughly  pro-Soviet. 
Certain  groups  of  British  capitalists  fear  they  might  get 
less  out  of  Russia  from  a  democratic  and  patriotic 
peasants'  government  than  from  the  cynical  diplomacy 
of  the  Bolshevists — ready  to  give  to  foreigners  the  title 
to  everything  in  Russia,  so  far  as  this  is  necessary  to 
secure  the  means  needed  to  hold  their  power  and  prevent 
popular  government.  In  the  same  way  a  certain  school 
of  British  diplomats  note  that  Lenin  is  ready  to  alienate 
Russian  territory  in  the  belief  he  can  win  it  back  or 
at  least  control  it  by  instigating  revolutions.  These 
financiers  and  diplomatists  have  another  view  of  future 
probabilities.  In  the  meanwhile  they  are  ready  to  take 
advantage,  for  the  purposes  of  the  British  Empire,  of 
Lenin's  willingness  to  sign  away  Russia's  territory, 
natural  wealth,  and  industries.  These  are  certainly 
among  the  leading  motives  of  British  opinion  on  Russia 
and  so  undoubtedly  influence  British  policy — if,  indeed, 
they  do  not  dominate  it. 


224         OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN   MOUTHS 

America  neither  hopes  to  gain  anything  at  the  cost 
of  the  Russian  people,  nor  has  this  nation  anything  to 
fear  at  home  or  abroad  from  the  band  of  insane  fanatics 
momentarily  in  control  of  that  great  country.  We  are 
concerned  with  Bolshevism  as  a  world  evil,  which 
operates  in  varying  degrees  in  many  countries.  But  we 
regard  it  neither  as  an  indomitable  power  which  we  are 
forced  to  recognize  and  conciliate,  nor  as  a  movement 
with  which  honorable  governments  can  afford  to  co- 
operate— as  the  beneficiaries  of  its  unparalleled  crimes 
against  the  Russian  people. 

The  danger  that  the  pro-Soviet  agitation  may  be 
revived  is  not  past.  Krassin  has  boldly  stated  that  the 
British  trade  agreement  was  obtained  not  by  any  funda- 
mental concessions  of  communism  to  capitalism  but  by 
propaganda,  and  he  plans  to  station  himself  now  in 
Canada,  whence  he  says  he  hopes  to  return  "via  New 
York."  Provided  only  he  will  come  "as  an  individual" 
certain  Senators  say  he  will  be  welcome.  But  he  can 
operate  quite  effectively  from  Canada. 

What  makes  the  Soviet  campaign  in  America  danger- 
ous to  some  extent  is  the  curious  espousal  of  the  Soviet 
cause  by  numerous  so-called  "liberals"  and  by  the  radi- 
cal minority  grouped  in  various  camps. 

Historians  will  look  back  upon  this  support  of  Soviet- 
ism  with  a  smile,  a  sardonic  grin  at  the  pretenders  of 
to-day. 

Liberalism,  when  it  is  true  to  its  mission,  seeks  the 
extension  of  democratic  practice  and  the  enlargement  of 
the  opportunities  in  democracy.  It  is  the  implacable 
foe  of  autocracy  and  of  all  dictatorial  practices.  The 
diseased  state  of  mind  that  calls  itself  liberalism  in 


CAMOUFLAGED  TRADE  AGITATION     225 

America  at  the  moment  is  guilty  of  betraying  democracy 
in  the  most  portentous  situation  of  our  time.  It  sneers 
at  the  democracy  of  America,  turns  up  a  supercilious 
nose  at  the  great  American  labor  movement,  and  rushes 
with  abnormal  appetite  into  the  social  and  moral  violence 
of  Moscow. 

Perhaps  some  of  this  phenomenon  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  so-called  liberals  of  America  have  fallen  victim 
to  a  mania  for  mysticism  and  Moscow  is  the  small  end 
of  the  cornucopia  from  which  is  emitted  the  great  haze 
— the  great  narcotic  supply  of  all  the  conglomeration  of 
mental  morphia  addicts. 

What  this  condition  makes  necessary  is  that  Americans 
must  distinguish  between  the  true  liberals  and  the  false 
liberals,  the  real  liberalism  and  the  pretense  of  liberalism. 

The  pretending  liberalism  is  for  Sovietism  in  Russia 
and  for  American  recognition  of  that  reversion  to  bar- 
baric type. 

If,  as  we  are  told,  all  that  now  is  required  by  the 
Soviets  is  a  de  facto  recognition,  let  there  be  no  mis- 
apprehension as  to  what  that  means.  That  means  recog- 
nition to  the  extent  that  we  declare  the  Soviet  Govern- 
ment to  be  the  government  in  fact — the  government  that 
is.  An  official  Soviet  wireless  on  September  10  said: 


The  only  thing  which  the  Russian  Government  de- 
mands is  that  de  facto  relations  be  resumed,  as  it  is 
obvious  that  otherwise  trade  relations  are  impossible; 
therefore  such  resumption  of  de  facto  relations  is  in- 
separable from  trade  relations. 


Plain  notice,  this,  to  the  world  that  Russia  will  pay 


226          OUT  OF  THEIR  OWN  MOUTHS 

in  trade  for  recognition.  It  is  an  offer  to  bribe  the  sup- 
posedly gold-hungry  Americans. 

What  the  Soviets  hope  would  follow  such  de  facto 
recognition  and  free  resumption  of  trade  would  be  un- 
limited opportunity  to  attempt  corruption  of  the  world 
by  propaganda. 

The  United  States  has  lifted  all  trade  bans.  This 
government  interposes  no  legal,  barrier  to  trade  with 
Soviet  Russia.  A  treasury  order  signed  on  December 
20  took  down  the  last  barrier,  permitting  exportation 
of  gold  to  Russia  and  allowing  dealings  in  exchange. 

This  is  surely  enough.  If  it  is  too  much  may  be  a 
fair  subject  for  discussion.  But  we  have  gone  that  far. 
Surely,  democratic  America  will  take  no  further  step 
in  compromise  with  an  autocracy  the  like  of  which  the 
world  has  never  seen. 

Information  about  Russia  continues  to  accumulate. 
Only  those  who  are  determined  not  to  be  informed  can 
remain  uninformed.  Upon  encountering  a  questioning 
opponent  the  exponents  of  Sovietism  say  that  we  do  not 
know  what  are  the  conditions  in  Russia  and  advise  us 
to  "wait  until  we  can  get  the  truth." 

This  is  subterfuge  that  deceives  only  the  unthinking. 
We  do  know  the  great,  main  truth  about  Russia  and 
we  do  have  fairly  accurate  information  as  to  the  material 
conditions  of  the  people.  It  is  perhaps  no  fault  of  the 
rigid  control  of  visitors'  permits  exercised  by  the  Soviets 
that  numerous  persons  have  gone  into  Russia  as  fervent 
Soviet  advocates  only  to  come  out  running,  hands  over 
their  faces,  like  fugitives  from  a  scourge.  That  ardent 
Socialist  H.  G.  Wells  found  conditions  so  terrible  that 
for  a  defense  of  the  Soviets  he  had  to  resort  to  the 


CAMOUFLAGED  TRADE  AGITATION     227 

plea  that  no  other  government  could  stand  and  that  if 
the  Soviets  fell  we  should  have  a  nation  of  Asiatic  hordes 
running  stark  wild  over  the  country. 

The  all  important  thing  that  Americans  know  about 
Russia  is  that  in  every  sense  the  Soviet  Government  and 
the  philosophy  back  of  it  are  absolute  in  their  denial 
and  repudiation  of  democracy.  This  is  the  principle 
that  has  been  at  stake  in  all  the  history  of  the  contest 
between  freedom  and  slavery,  self-government  and  auto- 
cratic government,  light  and  darkness.  This  was  the 
issue  in  the  struggle  against  Prussianism.  It  was  the 
issue  when  the  first  man,  in  answer  to  a  spark  that  had 
been  lighted  in  his  soul,  struck  the  first  blow  against 
imperial  rule.  It  is  the  issue  over  which  the  agonies 
of  the  world  have  rolled.  It  is  an  issue  on  which  Ameri- 
cans can  not  be  deceived  and  from  which  they  will  not 
be  budged. 


APPENDIX  I 
AMERICAN  LABOR  AND  RUSSIA 

THE  friendship  of  American  Labor  for  the  Russian 
people  has  been  invariable,  steadfast,  and  unqualified. 
In  a  series  of  cablegrams  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor  and  its  President  have  expressed  at  length  their 
ardent  interest  in  the  permanent  welfare  of  Russian 
labor  and  of  the  Russian  people  generally.  This  meant 
uncompromising  hostility  to  Czarism  and  it  means  un- 
compromising repudiation  of  Sovietism.  These  cable- 
grams prove  that  American  labor  understands  the  ele- 
ments of  the  Russian  situation  and  takes  its  stand  heart 
and  soul  with  Russian  labor  and  the  Russian  people. 

CABLEGRAM 

Washington  April  2, 1917. 

Tstcheidze  [President  of  the  "Soviet"] 

Petrograd 

Representative  of  working  people  of  Russia.  Accept 
this  message  to  the  men  of  labor  of  Russia.  We  send 
greeting.  The  newly  established  liberty  of  Russia  finds 
a  warm  response  in  the  hearts  of  America's  workers.  We 
rejoice  at  the  intelligence,  courage  and  the  conviction 
of  a  people  who  even  while  concentrating  every  effort 
upon  defense  against  foreign  aggression  have  reorgan- 
ized their  own  institutions  upon  principles  of  freedom 
and  democracy.  But  it  is  impossible  to  achieve  the  ideal 
state  immediately.  When  the  right  foundation  has  been 

228 


AMERICAN  LABOR  AND  RUSSIA        229 

established,  the  masses  can  daily  utilize  opportunities 
for  progress,  more  complete  justice,  and  greater  liberty. 
Freedom  is  achieved  in  meeting  the  problems  of  life  and 
work.  It  cannot  be  established  by  revolution  only — it  is 
the  product  of  evolution.  Even  in  the  Republic  of  the 
United  States  of  America  the  highest  ideals  of  freedom 
are  incomplete — but  we  have  the  will  and  the  opportu- 
nity. In  the  name  of  America's  workers  whose  watch- 
words are  Justice  Freedom  and  Humanity  we  plead  that 
Russia's  workers  and  masses  shall  maintain  what  you 
have  already  achieved  and  practically  and  rationally 
solve  the  problems  of  today  and  safeguard  the  future 
from  the  reactionary  forces  who  would  gladly  take  ad- 
vantage of  your  lack  of  unity  to  reestablish  the  old 
regime  of  royalty  reaction  tyranny  and  injustice.  Our 
best  wishes  are  with  Russia  in  her  new  opportunity. 

SAMUEL  GOMPERS 

President 
American  Federation  of  Labor. 


(S/ABLEGRAM 

Washington,  D.  C., 

April  23,  1917. 
Tstcheidze, 

Petrograd 

Executive  Council  American  Federation  of  Labor  in 
regular  session  here  as  representatives  of  the  labor  move- 
ment of  America  send  fraternal  greetings  to  you  and 
through  you  to  all  who  have  aided  in  establishing  liberty 
in  Russia.  "We  know  that  liberty  means  opportunity  for 
the  masses  especially  the  workers.  The  best  thought, 
hopes  and  support  of  America's  workers  are  with  your 
efforts  to  form  a  government  that  shall  insure  the  per- 
petuity of  freedom  and  protect  your  rights  and  new 
found  liberty  against  the  insidious  forces  and  agents  of 
reaction  and  despotism.  May  we  not  urge  you  to  build 


230  APPENDIX  I 

practically  and  constructively.  Our  heartfelt  sympathy 
is  with  you  in  the  great  opportunity  and  work  that  lie 
before  you. 

SAMUEL  GOMPERS 
JAMES  DUNCAN 
JAMES  O'CONNELL 
Jos.  F.  VALENTINE 
JOHN  R.  ALPINE 
H.  B.  PERHAM 
FRANK  DUFFY 
WILLIAM  GREEN 
W.  D.  MAHON 
JOHN  B.  LENNON 
FRANK  MORRISON 

Executive  Council 
American  Federation  of  Labor 


Washington,  May  6,  1917. 

Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Council  [Soviet]  of  Deputies, 
Petrograd,  Kussia. 

The  gravest  crisis  in  the  world's  history  is  now  hang- 
ing in  the  balance,  and  the  course  which  Russia  will 
pursue  may  have  a  determining  influence  whether 
democracy  or  autocracy  shall  prevail.  That  democracy 
and  freedom  will  finally  prevail  there  can  be  no  doubt 
in  the  minds  of  men  who  know,  but  the  cost,  the  time 
lost  and  the  sacrifices  which  would  ensue  from  lack  of 
united  action  may  be  appalling.  It  is  to  avoid  this  that 
I  address  you. 

In  view  of  the  grave  crisis  through  which  the  Russian 
people  are  passing  we  assure  you  that  you  can  rely 
absolutely  upon  the  whole-hearted  support  and  cooper- 
ation of  the  American  people  in  the  great  war  against 
our  common  enemy,  Kaiserism.  In  the  fulfillment  of 
that  cause  the  present  American  Government  has  the 


AMERICAN    LABOR    AND    RUSSIA        231 

support  of  99  per  cent,  of  the  American  people,  including 
the  working  class  both  of  the  cities  and  of  the  agricul- 
tural sections. 

In  free  America,  as  in  free  Russia,  the  agitators  for 
a  peace  favorable  to  Prussian  militarism  have  been 
allowed  to  express  their  opinions  so  that  the  conscious 
and  unconscious  tools  of  the  Kaiser  appear  more  influ- 
ential than  they  really  are.  You  should  realize  the  truth 
of  the  situation.  There  are  but  few  in  America  willing 
to  allow  Kaiserism  and  its  allies  to  continue  their  rule 
over  those  non-German  peoples  who  wish  to  be  free  from 
their  domination.  Should  we  not  protest  against  the 
pro-Kaiser  Socialist  interpretation  of  the  demand  for  no 
annexation,  namely,  that  all  oppressed  non-German 
peoples  shall  be  compelled  to  remain  under  the  domina- 
tion of  Prussia  and  her  lackeys — Austria  and  Turkey? 
Should  we  not  rather  accept  the  better  interpretation 
that  there  must  be  no  forcible  annexations,  but  that 
every  people  must  be  free  to  choose  any  allegiance  it 
desires,  as  demanded  by  the  Council  of  "Workmen's  and 
Soldiers'  Deputies? 

Like  yourselves,  we  are  opposed  to  all  punitive  ana 
improper  indemnities.  We  denounce  the  onerous  puni- 
tive indemnities  already  imposed  by  the  Kaiser  upon  the 
people  of  Serbia,  Belgium  and  Poland. 

America's  workers  share  the  view  of  the  Council  of 
"Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Deputies  that  the  only  way 
in  which  the  German  people  can  bring  the  war  to  an 
early  end  is  by  imitating  the  glorious  example  of  the 
Russian  people,  compelling  the  abdication  of  the  Hohen- 
zollerns  and  the  Hapsburgs,  and  driving  the  tyrannous 
nobility,  bureaucracy  and  the  military  caste  from  power. 

Let  the  German  Socialists  attend  to  this,  and  cease 
their  false  pretenses  and  underground  plotting  to  bring 
about  an  abortive  peace  in  the  interest  of  Kaiserism  and 
the  ruling  class.  Let  them  cease  calling  pretended  "in- 
ternational" conferences  at  the  instigation  or  connivance 
of  the  Kaiser.  Let  them  cease  their  intrigues  to  cajole 


232  APPENDIX  I 

the  Russian  and  American  working  people  to  interpret 
your  demand,  "no  annexations,  no  indemnities,"  in  a 
way  to  leave  undiminished  the  prestige  and  the  power 
of  the  German  military  caste. 

Now  that  Russian  autocracy  is  overthrown,  neither 
the  American  government  nor  the  American  people  ap- 
prehend that  the  wisdom  and  experience  of  Russia  in 
the  coming  constitutional  assembly  will  adopt  any  form 
of  government  other  than  the  one  best  suited  to  your 
needs.  We  feel  confident  that  no  message,  no  individual 
emissary  and  no  commission  has  been  sent,  or  will  be 
sent,  with  authority  to  offer  any  advice  whatever  to 
Russia  as  to  the  conduct  of  her  internal  affairs.  Any 
commission  that  may  be  sent  will  help  Russia  in  any 
way  that  she  desires  to  combat  Kaiserism  wherever  it 
exists  or  may  manifest  itself. 

"Word  has  reached  us  that  false  reports  of  an  American 
purpose  and  of  American  opinions  contrary  to  the  above 
statement  have  gained  some  circulation  in  Russia.  We 
denounce  these  reports  as  the  criminal  work  of  desperate 
pro-Kaiser  propagandists  circulated  with  the  intent  to 
deceive  and  to  arouse  hostile  feelings  between  the  two 
great  democracies  of  the  world.  The  Russian  people 
should  know  that  these  activities  are  only  additional 
manifestations  of  the  "dark  forces"  with  which  Russia 
has  been  only  too  familiar  in  the  unhappy  past. 

The  American  Government,  the  American  people,  the 
American  labor  movement  are  whole-heartedly  with  the 
Russian  workers,  the  Russian  masses,  in  the  great  effort 
to  maintain  the  freedom  you  have  already  achieved  and 
to  solve  the  grave  problems  yet  before  you.  We  earnestly 
appeal  to  you  to  make  common  cause  with  us  to  abolish 
all  forms  of  autocracy  and  despotism,  and  to  establish 
and  maintain  for  generations  yet  unborn  the  priceless 
treasures  of  justice,  freedom,  democracy  and  humanity. 
American  Federation  of  Labor, 

SAMUEL  GOMPERS,  President. 


AMERICAN  LABOR  AND  RUSSIA        233 


CABLEGRAM 

Washington 

September  13,  1917. 

Kerensky    Premier  Russian  Revolutionary  Government 
Petrograd    Russia 

At  a  tremendously  important  national  conference 
three  days  of  representatives  of  labor  and  socialists  at 
Minneapolis  Minnesota  September  fifth  sixth  seventh 
called  to  solidify  working  class  and  all  people  of  United 
States  among  other  declarations  the  following  was 
adopted  with  great  enthusiasm  and  without  a  dissent- 
ing voice  or  vote.  We  address  ourselves  to  the: 

"Sons  of  liberty  in  all  lands  are  now  watching  with 
heavy  hearts  the  desperate  contest  of  their  brothers  in 
spirit  and  arms  now  battling  on  the  plains  of  Russia. 
Born  amidst  the  thunders  of  the  greatest  war  of  all 
times,  the  great  Russian  democracy  brought  to  all  lovers 
of  man's  freedom  a  new  hope  and  inspiration.  Assailed 
on  all  sides  by  a  terrible  and  insidious  foe,  now  spread- 
ing death  and  devastation  in  its  ranks  and  now  masquer- 
ading as  a  friend  and  penetrating,  under  the  guise  of  a 
revolutionist  into  the  very  councils  of  the  revolution, 
the  Russian  democracy  is  now  passing  through  the  most 
critical  time  in  its  struggle  for  existence. 

The  American  Alliance  for  Labor  and  Democracy 
sends  greetings  to  the  fighters  for  liberty  in  Russia  as 
brothers  in  the  same  cause.  The  aims  of  the  Russian 
democracy  are  our  aims;  its  victory  is  our  victory  and 
its  defeat  is  our  defeat ;  and  even  the  traitors  that  assail 
the  Russian  democracy  likewise  assail  us.  In  the  con- 
flict for  the  liberty  of  Russia,  the  liberty  of  America  is 
likewise  at  stake.  Every  Russian  soldier  who  faces  un- 
flinchingly the  enemy  in  the  field  is  striking  a  blow  for 
the  liberty  of  America. 

The  American  Alliance  for  Labor  and  Democracy, 
representing  every  loyal  thought  of  American  Labor  and 


234  APPENDIX  I 

American  Socialism,  pledges  and  dedicates  the  American 
working  class  to  the  support  and  service  of  the  Russian 
democracy.  It  calls  upon  the  working  people  and  the 
Socialists  of  America  and  also  upon  the  government  of 
the  United  States  to  strain  every  effort  and  resource  in 
their  command  to  the  aid  of  the  Russian  democracy. ' ' 

SAMUEL  GOMPERS, 

President,  American  Federation  of  Labor; 
President,  American  Alliance  for  Labor  and  Democracy. 


CABLEGRAM 

Washington  March  12  1918. 
All  Russian  Soviet,  Moscow. 

We  address  you  in  the  name  of  world  liberty.  We 
assure  you  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  are 
pained  by  every  blow  at  Russian  freedom,  as  they  would 
be  by  a  blow  at  their  own.  The  American  people  desire 
to  be  of  service  to  the  Russian  people  in  their  struggle 
to  safeguard  freedom  and  realize  its  opportunities.  We 
desire  to  be  informed  as  to  how  we  can  help.  We  speak 
for  a  great  organized  movement  of  working  people  who 
are  devoted  to  the  cause  of  freedom  and  the  ideals  of 
democracy.  We  assure  you  also  that  the  whole  American 
nation  ardently  desires  to  be  helpful  to  Russia  and  awaits 
with  eagerness  an  indication  from  Russia  as  to  how  help 
may  most  effectively  be  extended.  To  all  those  who 
strive  for  freedom  we  say,  Courage.  Justice  must 
1  triumph  if  all  free  people  stand  united  against  autocracy. 
We  await  your  suggestions. 

American  Alliance  for  Labor  and  Democracy. 
SAMUEL  GOMPERS,  President. 

This  cablegram  was  sent  before  the  full  news  of  the 
overthrow  of  the  Constitutional  Assembly  had  reached 
America. 


APPENDIX  II 
THE  SOVIET  ADMINISTRATION  OF  JUSTICE 

No  better  test  can  be  found  of  any  social  system  than 
its  administration  of  justice.  When  that  is  utterly  dis- 
orderly and  without  semblance  of  equity,  the  whole 
regime,  we  may  be  certain,  is  chaotic  to  the  core. 

In  an  article  in  the  Journal  of  the  American  Bar  Asso- 
ciation, Judge  Fisher  writes  that  agents  of  the  Soviet's 
supreme  tribunal  may  combine  in  one  person  arresting 
officer,  prosecutor,  judge  and  executioner.  He  found 
secret  courts  engrossed  in  litigation  to  recover  bribes 
promised  by  tradesmen  but  not  paid.  A  former  Moscow 
lawyer  justified  the  system  of  wholesale  bribery,  he  said, 
on  the  ground  that  it  had  become  impossible  to  live  at 
all  without  it.  Judge  Fisher  found  widespread  trading 
despite  the  abolition  of  private  property.  Such  illegal 
transactions  were  so  general  that  they  only  could  have 
been  carried  on  with  the  connivance  of  corrupted  officials. 

Judges,  the  writer  of  the  article  found,  were  subject 
to  no  restraint  but  the  "Revolutionary  conscience."  An 
effort  was  made  to  induce  all  workmen  to  act  in  that 
capacity,  and  in  Petrograd  there  already  had  been  more 
than  40,000  judges  though  there  were  only  40,000 
workers. 

Judges  even  in  small  villages  had  absolute  power  to 
carry  out  their  decrees  and  the  Cheresvechaika — "the 
All-Russian  Extraordinary  Commission  for  the  Suppres- 
sion of  Counter  Revolution,  Speculation  and  Sabotage" 
continues  to  employ  capital  punishment  in  parts  of 
Russia  which  were  declared  to  be  under  military  rule, 

235 


236  APPENDIX   II 

although,  the  death  penalty  was  abolished  in  1920. 
Offenders  in  Moscow  whose  deaths  were  desired  were 
transferred  to  a  military  district  for  trial. 

Judge  Fisher  says  that  the  accused  are  not  permitted 
to  face  their  judges  and  are  not  told  the  nature  of  the 
charge  nor  given  a  chance  to  explain.  Many  have  been 
executed  without  even  knowing  that  they  had  been  con- 
victed. The  tribunal  "has  no  regard  for  the  action  of 
any  other  departments  of  the  State."  It  is  responsible 
to  no  one,  and  even  the  communist  officials  fear  it.  There 
is  provision  for  appeal  from  the  local  or  departmental 
Cheresvechaika  to  the  All-Russian,  but  ordinarily  the 
defendant  has  been  executed  before  the  appeal  is  per- 
fected. Controlled  by  no  law  the  tribunals,  it  is  said, 
openly  use  their  power  to  avenge  the  wrongs  attributed 
to  old-time  enemies. 

Judge  Fisher,  who  is  Chairman  of  the  Russian  and 
Ukrainian  Committee  of  the  Joint  Distribution  Commit- 
tee, ends  with  a  plea  for  the  innocent  sufferers. 

(Summarized  by  the  New  York  Times.} 


APPENDIX  III 

THE  TURKO-BOLSHEVIST  ATTACK  ON  THE 
LABOR  GOVERNMENT  OP  GEORGIA 

AN  APPEAL  TO  LABOR 

THE  Government  of  Georgia  has  issued  from  Constan- 
tinople an  appeal  to  all  Socialist  Parties  and  Labor 
organizations  "in  the  name  of  the  Georgian  people, 
whose  liberty  and  independence  has  just  been  destroyed 
by  the  armies  of  the  Russian  Bolsheviks."  The  appeal 
describes  how  the  Moscow  Government  have  striven  to 
extend  their  power  over  Georgia  by  "sovietizing"  the 
country  through  insurrections  organized  by  its  subsidized 
agents.  These  efforts  being  unsuccessful,  others  were 
tried,  and  military  operations  resorted  to. 

On  November  28,  1920,  Trotzky,  in  a  long  speech 
before  the  Commissars  of  the  Communist  Party  as- 
sembled at  Moscow,  pronounced  the  death  sentence  on 
the  Republic  of  Georgia.  "Armenia  being  sovietized,  it 
is  now  the  turn  of  Georgia,"  he  said.  "It  will  be  suf- 
ficient to  tighten  our  hold  in  order  to  connect  Baku  with 
Batum." 

Bolshevist  troops  were  massed  at  the  frontiers  despite 
protests  of  the  Georgian  Government.  After  refusing  to 
discuss  matters  the  Moscow  Government  launched  the 
attack  in  the  middle  of  February.  The  attack  on  Tiflis 
was  at  first  repulsed.  On  February  21  a  rjadio  telegram 

237 


238  APPENDIX  III 

was  despatched  by  the  President  of  the  Georgian  Re- 
public  requesting  Tchitcherine  to  "formulate  the  objects 
of  the  war  you  are  conducting  against  us.  Perhaps  we 
can  come  to  an  understanding  without  bloodshed.", 
Tchitcherine  did  not  reply.  Similar  messages  to  Trotzky 
and  Lenin  shared  the  same  fate. 

Finally,  Georgia  was  surrounded  by  Bolshevist  troops, 
aided  by  those  of  the  Turks  at  Angora.  ' '  The  treachery 
of  the  Angora  Government  deprived  us  of  the  last  pos- 
sibility of  continuing  the  struggle  on  the  line  at  Rion. 
Our  troops,  surrounded  on  two  sides  by  the  armies  of 
two  great  military  powers — Soviet  Russia  and  Turkey — 
were  condemned  to  perish  without  the  smallest  hope  of 
success.  On  March  17  the  Georgian  Government  decided 
to  cease  fighting,  and  to  disband  the  army.  This  step 
laid  open  tjie  road  to  Batum  to  the  Bolsheviks.  On 
March  18  the  Government  left  Batum,  and  a  few  hours 
later  the  Bolshevist  troops  entered  the  town." 

The  appeal  concludes : 

The  Georgian  people  has  the  right  to  rely  in  this 
struggle  on  the  fraternal  support  of  the  international 
proletariat.  And  it  is  to  you,  comrades,  that  we  come 
for  this  support!  You  have  always  condemned  wars  of 
conquest.  Are  the  authors  of  this  war  against  Georgia 
less  culpable  because  they  hide  their  imperialistic  char- 
acteristics under  the  flag  of  Communism? 

We  ask  you  to  stigmatize  the  crime  of  the  invaders 
of  our  country,  and  the  hypocrisy  of  those  who  have  re- 
course to  bayonets  to  wipe  out  the  influence  of  socialistic 
ideas  and  to  implant  their  own  ideas. 

Raise  your  voices,  comrades,  and  demand  from  the 
Government  of  Moscow  that  it  withdraws  its  armies  from 
Georgia;  that  it  gives  the  Georgian  people  the  right  to 


THE  TURKO-BOLSHEVIST  ATTACK      239 

govern  themselves,  and  to  organize  their  life  and  their 
State  according  to  their  own  wishes. 

NOE  JORDANIA,  President  of  the  Govern- 
ernment  of  Georgia,  the  Central  Committee 
of  the  Social-Democratic  Party  of  Georgia, 
and  the  Soviet  of  the  Workmen  of  Tiflis. 

NICHOLAS  TCHEIDZE,  President  of  the 
Constituent  Assembly,  member  of  the  C.  C. 
of  the  Social-Democratic  Party. 

EUGENE  GUEGUETCHKORI,  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  member  of  the  C.  C.  of  the 
Social-Democratic  Party. 

NOE  RAMISHVILI,  Minister  of  the  Interior, 
member  of  the  C.  C.  of  the  Social-Dejnocratic 
Party. 

The  whole  Labor  and  Socialist  press  of  Europe,  both 
the  moderates  of  the  Right  Wing  and  the  orthodox 
Marxists  and  revolutionists  of  the  Center,  with  few  ex- 
ceptions, has  denounced  this  conquest  as  an  example 
of  the  crudest  imperialism.  For  example,  Die  Freiheit 
of  Berlin,  organ  of  the  Independent  Socialists,  condemns 
the  Soviet  action  against  Georgia  as  "a  brutal  imperial- 
istic coup  d'  etat."  (Die  Freih&it,  April  28th,  1921.) 


EXTRACTS  from  his  Speech  on  the  Tax  in  Kind  before 
the  Congress  of  the  Russian  Communist  Party,  March  15, 
1921.  (Reproduced  by  Soviet  Russia,  May  15,  1921.) 

In  Russia  the  industrial  workers  are  in  the  minority 
<fud  the  small  farmers  overwhelmingly  in  the  majority. 
The  social  revolution  in  such  a  country  may  meet  with 
complete  success  only  under  two  conditions: 

1.  It  must  be  supported  by  the  social  revolution  in  one 
or  more  of  the  advanced  countries.    As  you  know,  much 
has  been  accomplished  in  this  respect  in  recent  days,  as 
compared  with  the  past,  but  this  condition  is  still  far 
from  fulfillment. 

2.  There  must  be  an  understanding  between  the  pro- 
letariat, which  is  the  executor  of  the  dictatorship  and 
holds  the  state  power  in  its  hands,  and  the  majority  of 
the  population. 

After  thus  admitting  the  dictatorship  and  reiteratyig 
his  faith  in  a  steadily  approaching  world  revolution, 
Lenin  continued: 

The  small  peasant  has  aims  that  a»e  not  the  same  as 
those  of  the  worker.  We  kndw  that  only  an  understand- 
ing with  the  peasantry  can  save  the  social  revolution 
until  the  revolution  is  ready  to  break  out  in  other 
countries. 

240 


LENIN'S  "CONVERSION"  241 

Now  what  is  the  nature  of  the  proposed  understand- 
ing? The  Communist  chief  first  shows  that  there  is  to 
be  no  fundamental  economic  concession,  no  restoration 
either  of  private  property  in  land  or  of  free  trade  in 
agricultural  products: 

We  must  say  [to  the  peasants] :  if  you  want  to  go 
backward,  if  you  want  to  restore  private  property  and 
bring  about  free  trade,  this  will  mean  that  you  are 
handed  over  irrecoverably  to  the  power  of  the  landed 
proprietors  and  capitalists. 

The  one  great  argument  to  produce  an  "understand- 
ing" is  that  there  is  no  choice  for  the  peasant  except 
Bolshevism  or  Czarism.  The  very  existence  of  agrarian 
democracies  is  to  be  kept  from  him  and,  since  his  expe- 
rience has  been  limited  to  Czarism  and  Bolshevism  (ex- 
cept a  few  months  of  the  Kerensky  regime)  there  is 
some  hope  of  success.  On  this  point  Lenin  says: 

A  peasant  who  has  even  a  modicum  of  class  conscious- 
ness cannot  help  understanding  that  we  represent  as  a 
government  the  working  classes,  those  working  classes 
with  whom  the  toiling  peasant  can  agree  (and  the  peas- 
ants represent  nine-tenths  of  our  population).  A  class- 
conscious  peasant  understands  very  well  that  every  turn 
for  the  worse  means  a  return  to  the  old  Tsarist  Govern- 
ment. 

Lenin  understands  that  the  peasants  cannot  be  con- 
verted to  Bolshevism — at  least  for  decades  and  genera- 
tions, though  he  hopes  that  the  process  will  be  achieved 
within  a  century — with  the  aid  of  certain  illusory  eco- 
nomic and  material  benefits,  such  as  electrification  (!)  of 


242  APPENDIX  IV 

Bussia.  In  the  meanwhile  they  are  to  be  governed  with- 
out their  consent  by  "the  proletariat,"  or  Communist 
Party.  He  says: 

The  transformation  of  the  entire  psychology  of  the 
petty  peasants  is  a  labor  that  will  require  generations. 
This  question  of  stabilizing  the  ideology  of  the  small 
peasants  can  be  solved  only  on  a  material  basis.  The 
application  of  tractors  and  machinery  in  agriculture  on 
a  large  scale,  the  electrification  of  the  whole  country, 
would  immediately  produce  a  transformation  of  the 
thought  of  the  small  peasants.  And  when  I  speak  of 
generations,  remember  that  generations  do  not  neces- 
sarily mean  centuries.  You  know  very  well  that  the 
obtaining  of  tractors  and  machinery  and  the  carrying 
out  of  the  electrification  of  a  gigantic  country  are  a 
matter  of  decades.  Objectively  considered,  that  is  the 
state  of  things  .  .  . 

Our  problem  in  this  Congress  is  to  formulate  the  main 
lines  of  the  question.  Our  party  is  a  governing  party 
and  the  decision  that  the  party  congress  adopts  will  be 
binding  for  the  whole  Eepublic. 

What  now  are  the  material  concessions  which  are  to 
"satisfy"  the  agriculturists  with  a  government  over 
which  they  have  no  control?  Here  is  Lenin's  project: 

If  we  go  carefully  into  this  question  we  must  at  once 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  small  peasants  can  be 
satisfied  in  two  ways:  in  the  first  plape,  ~by  a  certain 
freedom  of  exchange  of  commodities,  a  certain  freedom 
for  the  small  peasants,  and,  in  the  second  place,  we  must 
get  commodities  and  products;  for  what  would  be  the 
use  of  a  freedom  to  exchange  commodities,  if  there  are 
no  commodities  to  exchange? 

If  we  were  in  a  position  to  obtain  even  a  small  quan- 
tity of  commodities  and  the  state  should  take  possession 


LENIN'S  "CONVERSION"  243 

of  these  commodities,  the  proletariat  now  holding  po- 
litical power  would  receive,  in  addition  to  that  political 
power,  the  economic  power  also. 

We  cannot  extricate  ourselves  from  this  difficulty 
without  resorting  to  freedom  of  local  exchange  of  com- 
modities. If  this  exchange  of  commodities  gives  to  the 
state  a  certain  minimum  quantity  of  grain,  sufficient  to 
satisfy  the  needs  of  the  cities,  of  the  factories,  and  of 
industry,  this  exchange  of  commodities  will  contribute 
to  solidify  and  strengthen  the  political  and  national 
power  of  the  proletariat. 

In  a  word  "local"  free  trade  is  to  he  permitted  within 
narrow  limits  (see  Chapter  VII)  in  a  manner  to  increase 
both  the  political  and  the  economic  power  of  "the  pro- 
letariat," i.e.,  the  Communist  Party,  over  the  agricul- 
tural majority. 

Lenin  then  says:  "We  shall  now  be  asked  how  and 
where  we  are  going  to  get  the  commodities?"  For  a 
certain  minimum  of  commodities  are  essential  to  "sat- 
isfy ' '  the  peasants,  just  as  beads  are  necessary  to  extract 
valuables  from  the  savages.  The  answer  to  this  question 
is  simple  indeed.  The  commodities  are  to  be  obtained 
at  the  expense  of  the  foreign  and  domestic  enemy,  the 
big  and  little  bourgeoisie,  the  capitalists  and  the  peas- 
ants. The  patrimony  of  the  Russian  people — or  a  large 
part  of  it — is  to  be  offered  to  foreign  concessionaires  at 
an  enormous  sacrifice,  the  argument  of  the  concession- 
aires being  that  the  uncertainty  of  continued  Bolshevist 
rule  and  the  vagaries  of  their  methods  demand  a  huge 
reward,  while  the  Bolshevists'  calculation  is  that  they 
will  be  released  of  the  entire  debt  by  world  revolution. 
Or,  if  the  world  revolt  does  not  materialize  the  future 
generation  (90  per  cent  of  it  pheasants)  will  pay. 


244  APPENDIX  IV 

Here  is  Lenin's  answer  to  his  question: 

So  long  as  the  revolution  has  not  yet  broken  out  in 
other  countries,  we  must  not  grudge  the  hundreds  of 
millions  and  milliards,  which  our  boundless  resources 
and  our  rich  raw  materials  afford  us,  as  a  compensation 
for  the  trade  that  the  advanced  capitalist  countries  may 
give  us.  We  shall  later  recover  all  this  with  advantage 
to  ourselves. 

There  is  no  thought  either  for  the  future  Russia  or 
for  its  population.  The  entire  object — which  may  be 
achieved  if  other  nations  lend  themselves  to  this  ma- 
neuver— is  to  maintain  the  dictatorship  of  the  Commu- 
nist Party,  which  Lenin  insists  upon  calling  the  dictator- 
ship of  the  proletariat.  As  he  himself  sums  up  his 
position : 

The  situation  is  now  this :  either  we  must  economically 
satisfy  the  medium  peasants  and  consent  to  a,  freedom  of 
commodity  exchange,  or  it  will  be  impossible  to  maintain 
the  power  of  the  proletariat  in  Russia,  in  view  of  the 
slowing  down  of  the  international  revolution.  (Our 
italics.) 


APPENDIX  V 
CAN  THE  SOVIETS  BE  SAVED  BY  CAPITAL? 

THE  OFFICIAL  BRITISH  WHITE  PAPER  ON  ECONOMIC  AND 
POLITICAL  CONDITIONS  IN  RUSSIA 

THE  British-Soviet  Trade  Treaty  was  signed  in  March, 
1921,  after  nine  months  of  intensive  negotiations.  In 
May  the  British  courts  decided  that  this  treaty  amounted 
to  a  de  facto  recognition  of  the  Soviet  Government.  But 
actual  trading  on  any  considerable  scale  depends  not 
upon  paper  documents  but  upon  the  granting  of  huge 
credits.  Without  such  credits  the  trade  treaty  will  have 
little  if  any  economic  results.  The  official  British  White 
Paper  on  Russia,  issuejl  in  that  same  month,  shows  that 
there  are  no  grounds  whatever  upon  which  any  intelli- 
gent investor  would  provide  such  funds. 

When  the  British  Government  first  began  to  consider 
the  trade  treaty  it  appointed  a  special  committee  of 
prominent  business  men  to  collect  data  on  the  subject. 
Selected  in  May,  1920,  this  committee  reported  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1921,  and  a  summary  of  its  findings  is  now  pub- 
lished. 

Its  main  conclusions  may  be  stated  as  follows : 

a.  There  can  be  no  important  Eussian  exports  for  a 
considerable  time  to  come. 

6.  There  can  be  no  economic  regeneration  of  Russia 
at  all  without  foreign  capitalist  aid,  i.e.,  credits. 

e.  It  is  highly  questionable  if  there  can  be  any  regen- 

245 


246  APPENDIX  V 

eration  of  Russia  even  gradually  and  with  capitalist  aid 
as  long  as  Bolshevist  rule  continues. 

As  regards  resumption  of  trade  between  Russia  and 
other  countries  the  report  says: 

We  are  convinced  that  for  the  economic  equilibrium 
of  the  world  the  exports  from  Russia  are  most  important 
factors  to  the  European  market.  We  do  not,  however, 
consider  that  Russia  will  be  in  a  position  to  make  its 
contribution  toward  the  relief  of  Europe  for  a  consider- 
able time  to  come.  There  can  be  no  question  of  the 
export  of  cereals  in  the  immediate  future. 

It  is  our  conviction  that  there  is  no  possibility  of 
economic  regeneration  of  Russia  in  the  near  future  with- 
out the  assistance  of  capitalist  countries.  Our  conclu- 
sions with  regard  to  the  rendering  of  sueh  assistance  are 
guided  by  the  following  considerations: 

1.  That  the  destruction  of  capitalism  by  violence,  not 
only  in  Russia,  but  in  other  countries,  is  the  deliberate 
aim  and  purpose  of  the  Russian  Communist  Party,  which 
forms  the  Government  of  Soviet  Russia  at  the  present 
time. 

2.  That,  to  this  end,  the  Third  or  Communist  Inter- 
nationale has  been  established  at  Moscow,  and  we  believe 
this  has  been  done  under  the  auspices  of  the  Soviet  Gov- 
ernment, and  with  its  financial  and  material  support. 

3.  That  the  Russian  Communist  Party  and  the  Third 
Internationale  are  actively  endeavoring  to  compass  the 
destruction  by  violence  of  capitalism  in  countries  to 
which  the  Soviet  Government  has  addressed  overtures  for 
trade. 

4.  That  the  Soviet  Government,  in  destroying  capital- 
ism in  Russia,  has  assisted  to  bring  about  a  complete 
collapse  of  industry  in  that  country. 

5.  That,  in  face  of  this  collapse,  the  Soviet  Govern- 
ment invites  capitalists  to  help  to  restore  Russian  in- 
dustry. 


CAN  THE  SOVIETS  BE  SAVED  BY  CAPITAL?    247 

6.  That  the  Soviet  Government  has  carried  on,  up  to 
the  present  time,  an  active  and  widespread  international 
propaganda,  and  that  had  that  propaganda  achieved  its 
object,  international  capital,  to  which  the  Soviet  Govern- 
ment now  turns  for  aid  in  restoring  economic  prosperity 
to  Russia,  would  have  disappeared. 

7.  That  the  credit  and  capital  required  for  Russia's 
urgent  needs  are  large;  that  no  Government  can  give 
this  credit  and  capital  on  the  scale  required,  and  that 
such  aid  can  only  be  furnished  by  individual  capitalists 
or  financial  groups  who  are  willing  to  provide  the  neces- 
sary supplies  in  money  or  goods. 

8.  That  it  is  inconceivable  that  the  credit  and  capital 
required  in  Russia  should  be  provided  by  foreign  capi- 
talists as  long  as  the  destruction  of  capitalism  and  the 
violent  overthrow  of  so-called  bourgeois   Governments 
remain  the  main  object  of  the  Russian  Government,  or 
of  the  political  forces  by  which  it  is  controlled. 

9.  That    if    the    Soviet    Government    renounce    and 
abstain  from  propaganda  directed  to  the  destruction  of 
capitalism  and  the  established  order  in  other  countries, 
it  still  remains  to  ~be  seen  how  far  in  the  near  future 
they  will  be  able  to  arrest  the  process  of  economic  dis- 
integration and  to  lay  a  foundation  upon  which  it  will 
be  possible  for  Russian  industry  and  agriculture  once 
more  to  develop  and  expand. 

The  report  specifies  certain  changes  in  home  and 
foreign  policy  that  are  indispensable  before  there  can 
be  any  trade:  "the  complete  renunciation  of  the  Third 
Internationale,"  safety  of  foreign  business  men  in  Rus- 
sia, "the  restoration  of  rail  and  river  transport,"  "the 
co-operation  of  the  peasantry,"  and  "the  settlement  of 
the  agrarian  question." 

The  White  Paper  makes  it  more  than  doubtful,  how- 
ever, whether  the  Bolshevist  regime  could  arrest  "the 


248  APPENDIX  V 

process  of  economic  disintegration"  even  if  foreign  capi- 
talists— encouraged  and  supported  by  tfieir  governments 
— should  come  to  its  aid.  One  of  its  conclusions  is : 

That  the  state  of  administrative  incompetence  and 
corruption  into  which  the  departments  of  the  Soviet 
Government  have  fallen  militates  against  the  proper  dis- 
tribution of  available  supplies  among  the  population  and 
must  be  remedied  if  the  Russian  worker  is  to  be  restored 
to  the  standard  of  health  and  strength  necessary  to  re- 
establish the  diminished  productivity  of  his  labor. 

On  the  main  industrial  policy  of  the  Soviets,  the 
nationalization  of  the  leading  industries — which,  together 
with  the  nationalization  of  import  and  export  trade, 
remains  unaltered  after  the  "reforms"  of  March  (1921) 
— the  British  report  says: 

The  Soviet  government,  in  a  situation  calling  for  the 
exercise  of  the  utmost  discrimination  and  care,  carried 
out  the  policy  of  nationalization  in  haste,  without  taking 
account  of  the  disorder  already  prevailing  in  Russia,  of 
the  complex  structure  of  modern  industry,  of  the  absence 
of  expert  technical  assistance,  and  of  the  disabilities  re- 
sulting from  the  lack  of  knowledge  and  experience  under 
which  they  themselves  labored. 

The  document  further  declares  that,  as  a  result  of  this 
nationalization,  "the  power  of  officialdom  in  Russia  has 
developed  on  a  scale  to  which  there  is  no  parallel,  and 
represents  an  attempt  to  control  completely  the  condi- 
tions of  work  and  leisure,  of  food  and  drink,  of  educa- 
tion and  amusement,  of  travel,  and  even  of  the  home  life 
of  every  individual  in  a  nation  whose  population  even 
now  exceeds  120,000,000."  The  report  adds  that  recent 


CAN  THE  SOVIETS  BE  SAVE!)  BY  CAPITAL?    249 

evidence  shows  that  the  tendency  toward  State  control 
is  increasing  rather  than  diminishing. 

"It  would  appear,"  says  the  report,  in  summing  up 
the  persecution  of  labor  and  of  the  peasantry,  ' '  that  the 
Soviet  Government  must  decide  whether  they  are  going 
to  maintain  a  policy  of  political  repression  at  home  and 
aggressive  Bolshevist  propaganda  abroad,  which  will  in- 
evitably, whatever  international  treaties  they  may  make, 
lead  in  practice  to  a  continuance  of  their  present  eco- 
nomic isolation,  or  whether  they  will  accept  and  hon- 
estly carry  out  the  fundamental  condition  which  can 
alone  obtain  for  them  the  outside  aid  they  so  urgently 
need. 

"If  they  decide  to  maintain  the  campaign  for  the 
violent  destruction  of  capitalism  in  other  countries,  and 
the  policy  of  ruthless  repression  which  makes  it  impos- 
sible for  foreigners  to  live  and  to  do  business  in  Russia, 
then  Russia  will  of  necessity  be  left  to  her  own  resources. 
Then  will  the  future  show  whether  or  not  the  combined 
effect  upon  the  worker  of  persuasion  as  to  the  merits 
of  communism,  and  of  persuasion  by  payment  for  work 
done  with  the  shadow  of  imprisonment  and  the  bayonet 
ever  present,  can  restore  the  old  productive  power  of 
Russia  within  the  short  time  available  for  the  experi- 
ment. 

"If  it  does  not  Trotzky  himself  admits  that  the  Rus- 
sian Socialist  Society  is  on  its  way  to  ruin,  however  it 
may  twist  and  turn." 

Bolshevism  or  Sovietism  consists  in  such,  nationaliza- 
tion and  State  control  and  in  the  rule  of  a  minority  by 
repression — the  only  way  a  minority  can  rule.  The 
moment  this  control  is  abandoned  and  the  peasants  and 


250  ,  APPENDIX  V 

workmen  are  freed  and  repression  is  discontinued  Bol- 
shevism will  have  ceased  to  be.  But  all  the  evidence 
shows  that  the  Bolshevist  Party  and  its  leaders  have 
never  for  one  moment  considered  either  the  cessatioD 
of  repression,  or  the  abandonment  of  their  dictatorship. 

It  must  be  noted  that  the  parts  of  the  British  report 
so  far  published  in  America  do  not  deal  with  weighty 
political  questions  such  as -the  commercial  integrity  of 
the  Soviets  or  the  probability  that  the  succeeding  gov- 
ernment will  repudiate  their  transactions.  Nor  do  they 
touch  upon  certain  vital  economic  factors.  The  Soviets 
propose  to  pay  for  the  needed  imports  chiefly  by  con- 
cessions—since they  have  so  little  to  export.  Lomov,  the 
head  of  the  concessions  division  of  the  Soviet  Qrovern- 
ment,  declares  that  the  Bolshevists  are  now  ready  to 
grant  concessions  not  only  in  forests  and  mines  but  in 
oil  and  in  the  iron  and  steel  industry.  He  confesses, 
however,  that  a  serious  problem  is  created  by  the  higher 
wages  the  concessionaries  would  pay  their  skilled  labor 
when  compared  with  Russian  wages,  by  the  difficulty  of 
feeding  it,  by  the  Soviet  labor  laws,  etc.  Lomov 's  ad- 
missions suggest  another  whole  nest  of  additional  ob- 
stacles to  the  regeneration  of  Russia  by  foreign  capital 
and  foreign  trade.  These  are  doubtless  among  the  rea- 
sons why — as  Lomov  also  admits — not  one  concession  of 
importance  has  yet  been  accepted  by  foreign  capital ! 

The  White  Paper,  besides  its  interesting  conclusions  as 
to  the  probable  practical  outcome,  goes  to  some  extent 
into  causes.  For  example,  the  antagonism  of  town  and 
country  is  one  of  the  most  frightful  of  the  existing  con- 
ditions. As  to  the  cause  for  this,  the  British  report 
concludes : 


CAN  THE  SOVIETS  BE  SAVED  BY  CAPITAL?    251 

That  having  due  regard  to  the  causes  of  economic  dis- 
organization antecedent  to  the  rise  of  the  Bolsheviks  to 
power,  the  attempts  of  the  Bolsheviks  to  realize  the  class 
war  in  the  towns  by  a  precipitate  nationalization  of 
industry  and  in  the  villages  by  the  establishment  of  the 
dictatorship  of  the  village  poor  were  the  principal  con- 
tributory causes  of  the  gradual  separation  of  town  from 
city. 

The  practical  efforts  of  Bolshevism  up  to  the  present 
time,  so  far  as  they  affect  production,  have  been  a  dis- 
astrous failure.  The  magnitude  of  the  industrial  col- 
lapse in  Russia  and  the  consequent  cessation  of  exchange 
of  products  between  town  and  country  are  the  factors 
that  have  forced  themselves  particularly  on  our  atten- 
tion. We  know  of  no  similar  instance  of  a  collapse  so 
complete,  so  sudden  and  so  far-reaching,  although  a 
similar  tendency  is  to  be  observed  in  Central  Europe, 
and  more  especially  in  those  countries  which  formerly 
composed  the  Austro-Hungarian  Empire.  Want  existed 
in  Paris  during  the  revolutionary  period,  but  it  was 
submitted  to  for  the  sake  of  the  political  liberty  sought 
by  the  people,  and  there  was  no  general  economic 
debacle  such  as  has  occurred  in  Russia. 

The  White  Paper  also  points  out  that  the  financial 
policy  of  the  Soviets  is  leading  rapidly  to  inevitable 
bankruptcy.  In  1918  and  1919  expenditure  was  three 
and  two  and  one-half  times  income.  In  1920  expendi- 
ture was  seven  and  one-half  times  income.  The  report 
continues : 

In  spite  therefore  of  wholesale  confiscation  of  prop- 
erty and  repudiation  of  debt  the  three  years  of  Soviet 
rule  have  resulted  in  a  deficit  of  enormous  size  and 
rapidly  increasing  magnitude.  These  deficits  are  being 
met  by  issues  of  paper  which,  month  by  month,  become 
of  less  value.  That  the  present  state  of  things  cannot 
continue  is  certain. 


252  APPENDIX  V 

That  is,  wholesale  confiscation  and  debt  repudiation 
were  but  a  drop  in  the  bucket  in  view  of  the  mad  Bol- 
shevik finance. 

It  might  be  supposed  that  this  report,  at  last,  would 
be  enough  to  satisfy  the  pseudo-liberal  pro-Bolshevists 
as  to  the  character  of  the  Soviets.  What  is  our  amaze- 
ment to  find  it  also  being  interpreted  as  a  pro-Soviet 
document!  The  same  leading  Democratic  newspaper, 
one  of  the  chief  supporters  of  President  Wilson  in  this 
country,  already  quoted  in  Chapter  I,  declares  that  the 
White  Paper  shows  that  Lenin  and  Trotzky  "have  been 
doing  their  utmost  since  they  were  freed  of  the  threat 
of  invasion,  'to  establish  a  system  of  individual  control 
in  industry  in  place  of  the  collective  system  which  has 
proved  a  failure, '  to  repair  locomotives  and  rolling  stock, 
to  revive  industry  and  avoid  famine  by  conscripting 
labor,  to  end  bureaucratic  control  in  local  affairs  and  to 
encourage  trade  with  other  nations.  They  have  not 
succeeded  even  passably  in  any  of  these  undertakings, 
but  it  is  plain  that  they  have  endeavored  to  apply  a  con- 
structive programme  in  the  face  of  disorganization  and 
disorder  for  which  modern  history  has  no  parallel. 

"Whether  disorganization  and  disorder  would  have 
struck  so  deep  in  Russia  after  the  war  with  any  other 
Government  in  power  it  is  too  late  now  to  decide.  Even 
to-day  some  of  the  countries  of  Central  Europe  are  only 
a  little  better  off  than  Russia;  if  they  had  been  obliged 
to  endure  an  Allied  blockade  they  might  have  been  no 
nearer  recovery  in  1921  than  their  neighbor  to  the  east." 

An  unparalleled  inversion  of  the  facts.  "Individual 
control"  by  Soviet  bureaucrats  is  the  control  to  which 
the  White  Paper  refers,  and  this  was  accomplished  a 


CAN  THE  SOVIETS  BE  SAVED  BY  CAPITAL?    253 

year  or  two  ago.  Lenin  and  Trotzky  have  Hot  done  their 
"utmost"  because  they  are  still  working  first,  last,  and 
all  the  time  for  Bolshevism  and  Communism — as  the 
report  demonstrates.  It  also  shows  that  the  conditions 
in  Eastern  Europe  are  not  "only  a  little  better,"  and 
that  the  blockade  can  not  be  held  as  the  sole  or  chief 
cause  of  Russia's  plight. 

A  leading  Republican  organ  speaks  of  the  new  trad- 
ing conditions  established  in  March,  1921,  as  permitting 
"the  factory  owners"  (!)  to  begin  making  things  they 
believed  could  be  traded  to  the  Soviets  for  food.  This 
also  betrays  amazing  ignorance.  Factory  owners  in 
Soviet  Russia!  The  factories  are  all  (except  petty  work- 
shops) owned  by  the  Soviets.  This  is  the  very  essence 
of  Bolshevism.  The  real  conditions  introduced  by  the 
March  decree  permitting  restricted  and  local  trade  are 
portrayed  in  a  Washington  dispatch  to  the  New  York 
Times  (May  28) — based  on  information  from  Soviet 
sources : 

The  Moscow  Soviet  has  issued  licenses  to  trade  to  the 
following:  Bars  in  the  theaters,  tea  houses,  restaurants, 
gastronomic  shops,  dairy  shops,  butchers,  green  grocers, 
and  owners  of  kiosks.  Lately  many  artisans'  workshops 
have  been  opened,  hatters,  shoemakers,  etc.;  big  indus- 
tries, however,  are  at  a  standstill,  and  the  general  eco- 
nomic life  reminds  one  rather  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

The  only  big  or  Sovietized  industries  "prospering" 
are  those  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  arms. 


INDEX 

Agrarian  Revolt,  126 

Agriculturists  (Peasants),  11,  14,  15,  29,  33,  41,  45, 68, 79, 104- 

124,  240-244 
Alpine,  230 
America: 

(1)  and  the  Soviets,  1-19,   26,   156,   157,   207,  208,   224- 

227 

(2)  Bolshevist  Press  on,  22,  23,  24,  25 

(3)  Gompers-Hughes  Correspondence,  212-221 

(4)  Lenin  on,  22,  149,  208,  209 

(5)  American  Press  on  Soviet  Reforms,  10,  11,  14-16,  120, 

153,  250-253 

(6)  Trotzky  on,  150 

American  Bar  Association,  Journal  of,  235 

American  Communist  (Bolshevist)  Party,  24,  185 

American  Federation  of  Labor,  1,  7,  25,  165,  170,  181,  185,  228- 

236 

American  Socialist  Party,  18,  19 
American  Socialists,  Loyal,  230,  231 
Amsterdam  International,  see  International  Federation  of  Trade 

Unions 

Australia,  174 
Armenia,  190,  191 
Art,  133 

Assassination,  see  Terrorism. 
Asia,  156,  157 
Autocracy,  Industrial  and  Political,  78,  see  also  Dictators  and 

Dictatorship. 
Avanti,  188 

255 


256  INDEX 

Bailed,  189, 190 

Bartuel,  183 

Bavaria,  143,  149,  150 

Belgium,  186,  231 

Bidegaray,  183 

Blockade,  The,  66 

Bondfield,  Margaret,  63, 118 

Boni,  Albert,  85 

Bonus  System,  82,  83,  86 

Bourgeoisie,  see  Middle  Class,  Capital,  Democracy 

Brailsford,  107 

Brest-Litovsk  Treaty,  207,  211 

British  Labor  Party,  4,  34,  52,  64-67,  138,  161,  162,  186,  188, 

190,  198,  199,  201,  202,  223 
British  Socialists,  see  British  Labor  Party 
Britisk  White  Paper,  see  White  Paper 
Brousilloff,  100 
Bukharin,  160 
Bulgaria,  182 
Bureaucracy,  126,  127,  189-191 

Capital,  Foreign,  see  Trade  Agitation  and  Concessions 

Chernov,  53,  64,  68 

Children,  134-141 

China,  223 

Chinese,  60 

Civil  War  Advocated,  143,  see  also  Class  Struggle 

Class-War,  46,  47,  106,  108 

Code  of  Labor  Laws,  see  Labor  Laws 

Colby,  Secretary,  1,  2,  4,  10,  145 

Communist  Labor,  84 

Communist  (or  Third  Internationale),  18,  22,  23,  25,  31,  38,  44, 

45,  46,  144,  146,  148,  150-168 
"Communist  Manifesto,"  132 


INDEX  257 

Communist  Party,  Russian,  28,  30,  31-48,  67,  73,  85,  90,  91, 

115,  118, 142 
"Compromises"  and  "Reforms,"  6,  14-16,  112-116,  121-124, 

209,  210 

Compulsory  Labor,  6,  66,  72-87 
Concessions  170,  175, 182,  192,  203,  206,  226,  227,  243,  245-253, 

see  also  Trade  Agitation 
"Conservative"  Bolshevism,  12,  14 
Conscription  of  Labor,  see  Compulsory  Labor 
Constitutional  Assembly,  15,  28,  107 
Cooperatives,  14,  117-120 
Counter-Revolution,  see  Terrorism 
Cossacks,  59 

Credit,  Foreign,  see  Trade  Agitation  and  Concessions 
Crispien,  18,  158,  188 
Culture,  98,  133,  134-141 

Dalin,  62,  64 

D'Arragona,  160,  182,  183,  188 

Dan,  64 

De  Brouckere,  190 

Decrees,  Government  by,  128,  129 

Democracy,  Bolshevism  vs.,    28-48,   78,   104,    142,   188-190, 

200 

Desertion,  Labor,  58,  74,  75,  86,  97 
Dictators,  Factory,  77 
Dictatorship  of  the  Proletariat,  7,  10,  19,  28,  30,  33,  37,  38, 

91,  114,  122,  193 
Disciplinary  Labor  Juries,  129 
Disorganization,  Economic,  126 
Dittmann,  18,  189 
Djerzinsky,  68,  98,  99 
Duffy,  230 
Dugoni,  188 


258  INDEX 

Dumoulin,  183,  194 
Duncan,  230 

Economic  Collapse,  125-133,  245-253 
Economic  Conference  (Soviet),  42,  78 
Education^  26,  107,  143-141 
Egypt,  223 

Elections,  35,  36,  71,  94 
Electrification  of  Russia,  Proposed,  241,  242 
Extraordinary  Commission  for  Fighting     Counter-Revolution, 
see  Terrorism 

Factory  Soviets,  72 

Family,  The,  see  Home 

Farbman,  Michael,  10,  112 

Faure,  192 

Finmen,  194 

Fisher,  235,  236 

Food,  Requisition  of,  see  Taxation  in  Kind 

France,  22,  149,  154,  157,  184,  206,  207 

Freedom,  see  Terrorism 

Freedom  of  Press,  see  Free  Speech 

Free  Speech,  26,  34,  36,  104,  189,  193 

"Free  Trade,"  14,  43,  113-118,  241-244 

Freiheti,  Die,  239 

French  Confederation  of  Labor  (C.  G.  T.),  53,  169,  173,  180 

183,  191 

French  Revolution,  10,  164 

French  Socialist  Party  (now  Communist),  147, 155, 171, 188 
Friss,  108 

Georgia,  143,  190,  191,  237-240 

German  Socialists,  18,  63,  154,  172,  186,  188-190,  231,  239 
Germany,  4,  22,  150,  154,  156,  158,  177-182,  184 
Gompers,  6,  25,  181,  211-215,  228-236 


INDEX  259 

Gorky,  130,  131 

Goutor,  100 

Great  Britain,  3,  14,  32,  149,  156,  157,  161,  162,  173,  174,  184, 

203-205,  206,  208,  209,  223-224,  235-253  (see  also  British 

Labor  Party) 
"Green  Annies,  "59 
Green,  William,  230 
Guest,  Haden,  63 

Harding,  President,  3,  10 

Hearst  Newspapers,  9 

Henderson,  Arthur,  21,  170,  186 

Herald,  London  Daily,  4,  166,  168 

Holland,  186  0 

Home,  War  against  the,  135,  140 

Home,  Sir  Robert,  204 

Hostages,  52-55 

Hours  of  Labor,  see  Overtime 

Hughes,  Secretary,  3,  4,  5,  6, 9,  10, 132,  203,  215-221 

Hungary,  143,  149,  195 

Hungarians,  60 

Huysmans,  186,  190,  191 

Independent  Labor  Party  (British),  161,  162 

India,  184,  223 

Industrial  Workers  of  the  World  (I.W.W.),  175-182, 185 

Inefficiency,- 130,  131,  248 

Intellectuals,  51,  128,  172,  189,  199,  214 

International  Federation  of  Trade  Unions,  170,  171,  173,  184, 

185,  190,  194-197 
Intervention,  66 
Italy,  4,  149,  150,  154,  206,  210 
Italan  Confederation  of  Labor,  160,  171,  177 
Italian  Socialists,  18,  45,  63,  149,  150,  166,  188-190 


260  INDEX 

Japan,  22,  156,  206 
Jugo-Slavia,  182 
Justice,  235,  236 
Jouhaux,  183,  191,  194 

Kalinin,  70,  115,  116,  126,  144  ' 

Kameneff,  4,  155,  156,  206,  207 

Kaplan,  55 

Kautsky,  169,  190 

Kefali,  92 

Kerensky,  47,  52,  137,  164,  170,  241 

Kliefoth,  221 

Krassin,  94,  167,  198,  203,  204,  205,  208,  210,  224 

Krestinsky,  109 

Kronstadt  Rebellion,  208 

Kropotkin,  126,  127 

Labor  Army,  Red,  77,  79,  85 

Labor  Conscription,  see  Compulsory  Labor 

Labor  Delegations  to  Soviet  Russia 

"Labor  Opposition,"  97,  98 

Labor  Unions,  see  Trade  Unions 

Lansbury,  4 

Latsis,  50,  55 

Laws,  Labor,  72-87 

League  of  Nations,  142 

Lenin  (Lenin  is  quoted  under  nearly  all  the  topics  of  the  present 

volume.    Refer  to  topical  titles) 
Lennon,  230 
Letts,  60 

Libby,  F.  J.,  134,  135 
"Liberals,"  Pro-Bolshevist,  14,  19,  120,  133,  140,  164,  189,  199, 

214,  223-227,  see  also  Middle-Classes  and  Intellectuals 
Liberty,  see  Terrorism 
Liebknecht,  54 


INDEX  261 

Lloyd  George,  211 
London  Daily  News,  21,  22 
Longuet,  169 
Losovsky,  104,  177,  182 
Lunacharsky,  137,  138 
Luxemburg,  54 

MacDonald,  186,  190 

Mahon,  230 

Martens,  "Ambassador,"  7 

Martoff,  55,  87 

Marx,  32,  148,  206 

Massacres,  see  Terrorism 

McLean,  161 

Menshevists,  see  Social  Democratic  Labor  Party  of  Russia 

Merrheim,  53,  183,  192 

Metal  Workers  Union,  Russian,  75,  76 

Middle  Glass,  Bolshevist  Success  among,  153, 154 

Militarism,  see  War 

Militarization  of  Labor,  75,  79-81,  95 

Minor,  0.  S.,  201,  202 

"Moderates,"  Bolshevists,  see  "Conservatives,"  Bolshevist 

Morrison,  230 

Nansen,  222 

Nationalization  of  Import  and  Export  Trade,  248 

Nationalization  of  Industry,  116-120,  248 

New  York  World,  16 

Non-partisans,  37,  48 

Norwegian  Socialists,  108 

O'Connell,  230 
Ossinsky,  42,  97,  112,  113 
Oudegeest,  194 
Overtime,  76,  83,  86 


262  INDEX 

Paris  Commune,  29 

Pacifism,  52 

Paper  and  Printed  Matter,  Bolshevist  Monopoly  of,  26 

Peasants,  see  Agriculturists 

Perham,  230 

Pestana,  179,  182 

Press,  Freedom  of,  see  Free  Speech 

Printers'  Union,  Russian,  93,  99-103 

Prisons,  68-70 

Propaganda,  Bolshevist,  4,  9,  18,  20-27,  136-139,  173,  see  also 

Trade  Agitation 

Political  Education  Conference,  39,  163 
Purcell,  63 

Radek,  159, 160 

Railway  Workers,  50,  94,  95,  98 

Rakovsky,  66,  67 

Rappaport,  192 

Recht,  Charlesf  7 

Recognition  of  the  Soviets,  Agitation  fer,  1,  2,  203,  265,  225, 

see  also  Trade  Agitation 
Reconstruction^,  see  Reforms 
Red  Labor  Union  International  (or  International  Council  of 

Trade  and  Industrial  Unions),  169-187, 194-197 
Red  Terror,  see  Terrorism 
Reed,  John,  161 
Reforms,  Social,  134-141 
Revolt  of  Trade  Unions,  94-103 
Revolutionary  Agitation,  see  World  Revolt 
Rois,  193 

Rote  Fahne,  Die,  158 
Rudzutuk,  129 
Ruble,  Otto,  180 

Russian  People,  Voice  of,  199-201 
Russian  Relief,  7,  8,  222 


INDEX  263 

Russian  Social  Democratic  Labor  Party,  see  Social  Democratic 

Labor  Party 

Russian  Socialist  Revolutionary  Party,  see  Socialist  Revolution- 
t         ary  Party 

Russell,  Bertrand,  18,  63,  107,  108 
Rykov,  71,  149 

Sabotage,  51,  52,  55,  58 

Savinkov,  53 

Schliapmkoff ,  77,  97 

Schools,  see  Education 

Science,  133 

Serbia,  231 

Serrati,  45,  188 

Shaw,  Tom,  18,  63 

Shop  Stewards,  177-182 

Slavery,  see  Compulsory  Labor 

Snowden,  Philip,  21,  188 

Snowden,  Mrs.,  18,  63 

Social  Democratic  Labor  Party  of  Russia  (Menshevists),  85,  36, 

52,  53-55,  56,  61-63,  64-67,  71,  137 
Socialist  (or  Second)  Internationale,  19,  31,  167,  168,  170,  174, 

185-186,  192 

Socialists  on  Sovietism  (see  Labor  Delegations) 
Social  Revolutionary  Party  of  Russia,  36,  52,  56,  137,  199-201 
Socialist  Review,  33 
Soviet  Elections,  see  Elections 
Soviet  Form  of  Government,  15, 33-36,  37, 42 
Soviet  Russia,  84 

Spanish  Socialists,  18,  45,  63,  179,  182,  193 
State  Capitalism,  16,  17 
State  Socialism,  see  State  Capitalism,  36,  42 
Steklov,  59    ' 
Strikes,  76,j39 
Sverdlov,  47" 


264  INDEX 

Swedish  Socialists,  18,  63,  186 

Switzerland,  4 

Syndicalists,  72,  97, 174,  177-183 

Taxation  in  Kind,  14, 108-122 

Tchitcherin,  206 

Terrorism,  30,  31,  34,  43,  46,  49-71,  85,  96,  98,  106,  188,  189, 

195,  235,  236,  249 
Thomas,  Albert,  170 
Thomas,  J.  H.,  194 
Tomsky,  25,  177 

Trade  Agitation,  3-15,  203-227,  243,  245-253 
Trade  Treaties,  see  Trade  Agitation 
Trade  Unions,  20,  25,  31,  33,  36,  37,  39,  63,  71,   74,  75,  83, 

88-103,  169-187,  193 
Transport  Workers'  Congress,  47 
Troelstra,  186 
Trotsky,  11,  12,  35,  36,  41,  50,  51,  60,  77,  79-82,  94,  95,  108, 

143,  145,  148,  152,  165,  249 
Tscheidze,  228,  229 
Turks,  190,  191 
Turkey,  223,  231,  238 
Turner,  Ben,  18,  63 
Twenty-one  Points,  The  (Communist  Ultimatum   to  Socialist 

Parties),  147,  155,  172,  192 

Ukraine,  66,  67 

Uritsky,  62,  54,  55 

-, 

Vacirca,  188 

Valentine,  230 

Vandervelde,  186 

Versailles  Treaty,  22,  207 

Violence,  see  Terrorism 

War,  45,  143,  155,  156,  237-239 


INDEX  265 

Watts,  A.  J.,  135 
Wells,  H.  G.,  107,  207 
Wels,  Otto,  186 
White  Paper,  British,  245-253 
Williams,  Robert,  63 
Wilson,  ex-President,  4,  10 
Wilson,  ex-Secretary,  W.  B.,  7,  8,  148 
Wrangel,  53,  148,  193 

World  Revolution,  Movement  for,  3,  8,  12,  142-168,  240,  244, 
226,  227 

Yaroslav  Prison,  68-70 

Zemstvos,  133 

Zinoviev,  31, 45, 89, 152, 159, 160, 166^167, 194-197 

Zorin,  90 


DATE  DUE 


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DEC  7    7 

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GA  YLORD 

PRINT  ED  IN  U.S  .A. 

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